I have been interning at a clinic for around 2 years now as a medical assistant. I have no proper certification, but help at the clinic by rooming patients, and performing injections, blood draws, EKGs, etc.
These were done under the supervision of a certified medical assistant (outside of rooming patients). If I want to list this experience on the AMCAS, should I omit the parts about performing injections and blood draws under the supervision of certified medical assistants? I’m not sure if they were exactly legal to do (although I performed everything successfully). I’m assuming performing EKGs are legal as it’s non-invasive, but I’d like some clarification on all this.
I would definitely omit any mention of blood draws and injections because you are acting outside your scope of practice–which is unethical and possibly illegal. As a MA even administering EKGs is unethical and possibly illegal because you have neither been formally trained nor certified to do so.
Statement from the CA Medical Board about scope of practice for medical assistants:
A certified MA is not an appropriate supervisory authority for un-certified MA when performing supportive technical tasks
In CA MAs are allowed to administer injections but only after receiving appropriate instruction by an appropriate supervisor (see post above for a list of appropriate supervisors)–being taught by another MA (certified or not) is not acceptable. Under no circumstances are MAs allowed to do blood draws or administer EKGs–both of which are outside their scope of practice.
@WayOutWestMom Thank you for the clarification. I was also supervised by the physician, and was only by the MA’s when the physician was with another patient. Would any of those cases (injections, blood draws, EKGs, etc.) be ethical/legal then or should that still be omitted as I am not certified as a medical assistant? I should also mentioned that I am not getting payed/am interning. I don’t know if that plays into any factors, perhaps making it so I don’t count as an MA in CA?
California does not require MAs to be certified or licensed.
Whether you exceeded your scope of practice depends on the on-the-job training you received and who provided your training.
California’s Medical Board requires MAs to undergo specific training in order to injections or blood draws–
If you received supervised training as described above, then your training conforms with the CA state requirements. Your blood draws and injections fell within your scope of practice. If you received your training from only a MA or if your training did to meet state standards listed above, then you did not receive appropriate training recognized by the state of CA and your doing blood draws and injections were outside your scope of practice and thus unethical. If this is the case, then don’t mention doing those things in your AMCAS application.
MAs are not allowed perform EKGs (evaluative procedures or triage) by state of California regulations so that definitely fell outside your scope of practice. Don’t mention those.
If you aren’t getting paid, then select “community service/volunteer–clinical/medical” from the pull down menu as the experience type when you list the experience.
NOTE: scope of practice for various medical and healthcare providers varies widely by state. Please check the relevant state regulations and requirements in the state in which you work. What’s within scope of practice in one state may not be in another.
It is important that anyone who works in healthcare field be aware of their state licensing laws and regulations.
@WayOutWestMom You’re a great help, thank you for looking so extensively into this. I will double check with the physician that I have received the proper amount of supervision/training.
With regards to EKGs, I just checked the FAQ, and I couldn’t find anything about “evaluative procedures/triage,” so I gave them a call. Their representative told me that MAs can perform/setup the EKG, but the reading of the results has to be done by a physician (which is what I did). They told me that they had that information on hand, and that it was not on the FAQ. Was there another source that lead you to think MA’s cannot perform EKGs? Perhaps I can bring it to the attention of the person I was speaking to.
The CA Medical Board is the final authority in CA. If they say MAs are a allowed to set up EKGs then it’s allowed.
Actually it was one of my daughters (a physician) who told me that at her facility untrained personnel (i.e. people who were not at least paramedics) were not permitted to administer (perform) EKGs because of potentially unreliable results.
Curious–Do you actually administer the test? Attach leads to the patient? Or just lay out the equipment for the provider to use?
You say you have been “doing an internship” for two years? Are you a student? How old are you?
Is this internship part of a college program…or what?
You say you are not getting paid, and you have been doing this for two years? Really?
I would list this under volunteer work…and frankly, if I were a patient, I would not be expecting a volunteer to administer injections, or do blood draws. My opinion. Think about that.
Are there really volunteer MAs?
I know you didn’t ask for this advice, but really, if you are working in this office for two years, you should be paid. Why aren’t you being paid?
@WayOutWestMom If the physician wants an EKG done, originally under his supervision/training, I would administer the EKG (attach leads, ground, start program). I would then run the results by the physician, and if anything unusual came up the physician would talk with the patient.
@thumper1 It’s closer to 1.5 years. Finished undergrad a little while back and wanted to go into medicine, so I decided to get some clinical hours under my belt. As it is an internship, I am not getting payed. When administering injections and the like, I would let the patient know that I am simply a medical assistant (originally under the supervision of the physician when I was first learning), and if the patient did not feel comfortable the physician would administer it.
On AMCAS, applicants can only choose from a limited list on a pull-down slider to classify the types of experiences they list. There are only 2 options w/r/t clinical experience:
paid employment–medical/clinical
community service/volunteer–clinical/medical.
If a person isn’t being paid then, it obviously isn’t paid employment.
It doesn’t sound like this is a good place for training.
They seem to be treating you like a MA, not an intern.
And even if you were a MA, some of the procedures you perform, it sounds like they are not properly supervised.
I would probably look into a formal MA training program.
Right now it sounds like you are working for free and not getting the proper training.
In our area there is a program that provides MA and phlebotomy training which would be really helpful IMO and would cover the blood draw as well as regular MA duties, which would be valuable once you are looking for a job.