Thank God for Nepotism
Whee, I now know how to give intramuscular and subcutaneous injections. Monica had a little preparatory injection class with Alicia and I (because Alicia only works as a receptionist right now but is learning all the MA stuff so she can double task if needed in a pinch) and we got to inject oranges, and then had to test on each other.
I learned that I still get woozy if someone is doing something to me that I can't see, such as an injection in the butt (most common place, and actually on your hip so I don't know why they say the injection is in your butt) or having stitches removed on my back, even if it's something I know doesn't hurt such as a shot. It's weird, and I have no problem with procedures or pain anywhere else so long as I can see what they're doing.
Giving subcutaneous injections is weird. You use it pretty much solely for TB tests where they inject a tiny amount of the bacteria just under your skin, like when kids sew through the skin on their hands but on the forearm, make a little blister of fluid, and if they react to it that means they have the antibodies which means they have or had TB. We just used saline, but it feels very weird. You can feel the fluid stretching out your skin and separating the layers as it's injected. I felt bad because when I practiced on Alicia after she had done me, I had to prick her twice because I stopped holding the skin taut right after I got the needle in and it popped back out. :( She was okay with it, but I felt bad having to poke her twice. She's also quite the bleeder, for such a tiny needle mark.
I don't actually start until next Tuesday, but I'm starting to feel confident this'll be something I won't hate. Monica was very reassuring that there's no pressure for us to immediately excel at everything, and that there's no problem asking for lots of demonstrations and supervision until we're entirely comfortable with what we're doing to do it alone.
Gotta remember to go get a swine flu vaccine, though, for sure. They haven't had any actual cases at the clinic, but it could still be coming.
I learned something interesting, though. You know all those commercials for places like Western Career College and the like, those dental assistant and medical assistant certification schools? You totally don't need to go to one to be certified. All you need to do to become a medical assistant is be trained by a doctor or physician's assistant and log like 10 hours of practice or something, and you get approved for certification which will then follow you even out of that specific clinic or medical office. Those 10k programs are completely unnecessary and just a money-sink if you can find someone willing to train you. The advantage there is that you have better chances in the job market, like someone already certified would be hired before someone not, but it's madness that those schools prosper and charge so much when it's something technically not necessary. Monica said she'd much rather train people herself and have them know how to do it her preferred way than have someone churned out of school settings. Relatedly, it's total nepotism at the clinic, but it makes sense because she'd rather train people she knows outside of the field but knows are reliable people in general with good personalities, than someone already technically skilled but could be a flaky bitch, which you'd never know until they were hired. They apparently had a few school-taught MAs in the first few months that they just churned through because they were bad people despite their little expensive certification.
It's madness, but thank god for it.
For that matter, why would you spend that money to "secure" (not that they have any job guarantees anyway) a job where yes, you make more than minimum, but not astonishingly much more. If you're gonna spend the time and money to go to school for a special job, why not go to a real college or even something like a CNA/LVN program where you get a more well-paying career for just a bit more effort and money (and hell, there's always the massive world of financial aid anyway for those kinds of programs so it may not even cost anything significant)?
I needa go buy me some cute scrubs.
ETA: Oh yeah, I had a nice Halloween, but it was somewhat uneventful. I went to a party so I put my hair in victory rolls and went as a sailor girl. If it didn't take so long and eighty pounds of hairspray, I would do my hair like that EVADAY. It was even prettier at the beginning of the night, those pics were taken right before I changed out and my makeup was all worn off and I was frizzy. We ended up carving pumpkins the morning of Halloween and mine withered in less than a day, it was stupid. I didn't do anything awesome, though, just a wolf silhouette, but talk about time-sensitive. We also had significant trick-or-treaters for the first time in years!
It was also Max and I's one-year anniversary. :3 Whee. I know, Halloween anniversary, but it's for realz, remember the party at Tia's school last year? That was our first date.
I learned that I still get woozy if someone is doing something to me that I can't see, such as an injection in the butt (most common place, and actually on your hip so I don't know why they say the injection is in your butt) or having stitches removed on my back, even if it's something I know doesn't hurt such as a shot. It's weird, and I have no problem with procedures or pain anywhere else so long as I can see what they're doing.
Giving subcutaneous injections is weird. You use it pretty much solely for TB tests where they inject a tiny amount of the bacteria just under your skin, like when kids sew through the skin on their hands but on the forearm, make a little blister of fluid, and if they react to it that means they have the antibodies which means they have or had TB. We just used saline, but it feels very weird. You can feel the fluid stretching out your skin and separating the layers as it's injected. I felt bad because when I practiced on Alicia after she had done me, I had to prick her twice because I stopped holding the skin taut right after I got the needle in and it popped back out. :( She was okay with it, but I felt bad having to poke her twice. She's also quite the bleeder, for such a tiny needle mark.
I don't actually start until next Tuesday, but I'm starting to feel confident this'll be something I won't hate. Monica was very reassuring that there's no pressure for us to immediately excel at everything, and that there's no problem asking for lots of demonstrations and supervision until we're entirely comfortable with what we're doing to do it alone.
Gotta remember to go get a swine flu vaccine, though, for sure. They haven't had any actual cases at the clinic, but it could still be coming.
I learned something interesting, though. You know all those commercials for places like Western Career College and the like, those dental assistant and medical assistant certification schools? You totally don't need to go to one to be certified. All you need to do to become a medical assistant is be trained by a doctor or physician's assistant and log like 10 hours of practice or something, and you get approved for certification which will then follow you even out of that specific clinic or medical office. Those 10k programs are completely unnecessary and just a money-sink if you can find someone willing to train you. The advantage there is that you have better chances in the job market, like someone already certified would be hired before someone not, but it's madness that those schools prosper and charge so much when it's something technically not necessary. Monica said she'd much rather train people herself and have them know how to do it her preferred way than have someone churned out of school settings. Relatedly, it's total nepotism at the clinic, but it makes sense because she'd rather train people she knows outside of the field but knows are reliable people in general with good personalities, than someone already technically skilled but could be a flaky bitch, which you'd never know until they were hired. They apparently had a few school-taught MAs in the first few months that they just churned through because they were bad people despite their little expensive certification.
It's madness, but thank god for it.
For that matter, why would you spend that money to "secure" (not that they have any job guarantees anyway) a job where yes, you make more than minimum, but not astonishingly much more. If you're gonna spend the time and money to go to school for a special job, why not go to a real college or even something like a CNA/LVN program where you get a more well-paying career for just a bit more effort and money (and hell, there's always the massive world of financial aid anyway for those kinds of programs so it may not even cost anything significant)?
I needa go buy me some cute scrubs.
ETA: Oh yeah, I had a nice Halloween, but it was somewhat uneventful. I went to a party so I put my hair in victory rolls and went as a sailor girl. If it didn't take so long and eighty pounds of hairspray, I would do my hair like that EVADAY. It was even prettier at the beginning of the night, those pics were taken right before I changed out and my makeup was all worn off and I was frizzy. We ended up carving pumpkins the morning of Halloween and mine withered in less than a day, it was stupid. I didn't do anything awesome, though, just a wolf silhouette, but talk about time-sensitive. We also had significant trick-or-treaters for the first time in years!
It was also Max and I's one-year anniversary. :3 Whee. I know, Halloween anniversary, but it's for realz, remember the party at Tia's school last year? That was our first date.