From Medical Assisting to Practical Nursing – How Do You Get There?

Medical Assistant learning how to read Blood Pressure - through the Practical Nurse Access training
Medical Assistants can use their hands-on patient experience as a head start for further medical training

Do you have experience as a medical assistant, either under the Health Care Assistant qualification or Registered Care Aide designation? If so, you may want to consider an access program to train as a Practical Nurse.

Hands-On Patient Care With Greater Responsibility

As a health care assistant / care aide, you know how to interact directly with patients. Practical nursing takes those skills and goes into more depth both in scope of practice and responsibility. In addition, practical nurses are licensed and regulated by a professional nursing body in order to work in Canada. This allows LPNs to work under their own individual license. In British Columbia, the regulatory body is the College of Licensed Practical Nurses of British Columbia.

Like a medical assistant, a practical nurse has a very hands-on role in the modern hospital setting. She or he is often the health care team member who fills out in-depth patient care assessments, helps with pain management, administers intra-venous treatments and catheterization, and provides in-depth patient education.

A Quicker Path to Qualification

As someone with health care experience, you already have many of the skills and experiences it takes to become a successful nurse. Discovery Community College knows this, and has created a program to help you get the qualifications in less time than it would take if you had to start from scratch.

The Practical Nurse Access Program focuses on the areas of difference between medical assisting and nursing, including:

  • pharmacology
  • health promotion
  • variations in health
  • integrated nursing practice
  • professional communication
  • in-depth anatomy and physiology
  • practical experience

Training at Discovery, you could be finished and earning a nursing salary in less than two years.

You may be a medical assistant thinking about entering a career in nursing, or not yet in the health field. If you’re wondering how you can earn money while you qualify as a nurse, the Medical Assistant program combined with the Practical Nurse Access Program may be for you. Talk to one of our admissions representatives to find out more.

 

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