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Medical Assistant to RN: the Nursing Pathway for MAs
Transition your career from medical assistant to Registered Nurse (RN) and greatly increase your role in clinical patient care (and salary potential!).
How to transition from MA to RN
Medical Assisting (MA) represents a quick path to earning a rewarding hands-on job in healthcare. Although working as an MA can be a great and fulfilling career, you may wonder what is next after medical assisting? There are many opportunities to advance your career from medical assistant. If you are interested in playing a greater hands-on role, then a career in nursing may be the better career option you’re looking for.
If you are a Certified Medical Assistant (CMA) interested in becoming a nurse, here are five important things you need to know to help you prepare to become a registered nurse (RN):
1. Expanded responsibilities
While medical assistants and registered nurses both strive to provide quality patient care, their responsibilities and scope of practice differ.
Medical assistants can have many types of administrative and/or clinical responsibilities to help facilitate patient care. They can schedule appointments, greet patients as they enter the office and help prepare the patient by taking vitals. While they can potentially earn a level of autonomy, MAs usually work under the care of a licensed physician or a registered nurse.
Nurses play a greater role in patient care. While many of the tasks that MAs perform resemble the work of Licensed Practical/Vocational Nurses (LPN/LVN), nursing carries additional patient responsibilities, especially at the level of RN.
RNs have less of an administrative role and they primarily work one-on-one with patients. While they usually work under a licensed physician, they can:
- Create patient care plans
- Administer medication and treatments
- Run patient diagnostic tests
- Operate some medical equipment
- Collaborate with other medical staff
- Serve as key communicator between patients, families, and physicians
2. Educational Requirements
Medical assisting can be a quick path into a healthcare career, but becoming a registered nurse will take additional educational requirements.
After finding a nursing school, you will have to decide what pathway you wish to pursue.
How long it takes you to go from MA to RN depends on the educational path that you choose and if previous college course credit transfers into your degree program.
You will need to earn an associate or bachelor’s degree in nursing to qualify to sit for the certification exam and meet the board of nursing requirements in your state:
- An associate of science in nursing (ASN) program can be completed in as few as 20 months. The program prepares you to sit for the National Council Licensure Examination (NCLEX) for registered nursing to become a licensed RN.
- A Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) program can be completed either on-campus or online. In as few as 3 years, you can complete your degree and sit for the NCLEX-RN to begin your career as an RN.
You can potentially pursue a wide variety of possibilities in the field of nursing by later earning a Master of Science in Nursing, including becoming a nurse practitioner, nurse educator, or nurse administrator.
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3. Specializations
Just like there are different types of medical assistants, there is no such thing as “just” a nurse. Nurses provide specific care for patients in a variety of different settings. However, as you choose to pursue a nursing career, you may decide that you want to specialize in an area that interests you.
Some possible nursing specialties include, but are not limited to:
- Aesthetic/Cosmetic nurse
- Assisted living nurse
- Cardiac nurse (CVICU)
- Emergency Room (ER) nurse
- Flight nurse
- Home health nurse
- Intensive Care Unit (ICU) nurse
- Labor and Delivery nurse
- Neonatal/NICU nurse
- Neuroscience nurse
- Oncology nurse
- Pediatric nurse
- Public health nurse
- School nurse
- Surgical/OR nurse
- Travel nurse
There are unconventional nursing careers that you may also choose to pursue once you have earned your BSN. Nursing represents both a great next career step for MAs and excellent undergraduate foundation building a bridge to many future potential career paths.
4. Salary
Just with any change in careers, going from MA to RN can help you greatly increase your salary potential.
While these numbers reflect the national average, the exact salary depends upon the state, location and previous work experience. However, because the demand for all healthcare occupations is expected to increase much faster than the national average from 2023-2033, the need for both MAs and RNs is expected to continue rising. Changes in salary can also occur as a result of this demand.
5. Where they work
Both medical assistants and registered nurses work in similar environments, but that does not mean that they are the same! As a nurse, you can pursue your career in a variety of healthcare settings.
If you’re interested in working in a more autonomous role in patient care in a hospital environment, going from MA to RN may be right for you:
Percent of total occupational employment in industry, May 2023i
| Industry | Medical Assistants | Registered Nurses |
|---|---|---|
| Offices of Physicians | 56.54% | 6.94% |
| General Medical and Surgical Hospitals | 15.21% | 55.13% |
| Outpatient Care Centers | 9.26% | 5.16% |
| Offices of Other Health Practitioners | 7.93% | 0.62% |
| Employment Services | 2.17% | 4.13% |
| Continuing Care Retirement Communities and Assisted Living Facilities for the Elderly | 1.02% | 0.95% |
| Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools | 1.00% | 0.88% |
| Other Ambulatory Health Care Services | 0.83% | 0.58% |
| Nursing Care Facilities (Skilled Nursing Facilities) | 0.80% | 3.92% |
| Local Government, excluding Schools and Hospitals (OEWS Designation) | 0.62% | 1.24% |
i. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2023). Occupational employment and wage statistics, May 2023: All data. United States Department of Labor. https://www.bls.gov/oes/tables.htm. This table includes a selection of the top industries for each occupation. That’s why there are only 10 industries listed and percentages do not add to 100%. | ||
Examples of how to interpret this data:
- 56.54% of Medical Assistants are employed in Offices of Physicians
- 55.13% of Registered Nurses are employed in General Medical and Surgical Hospitals
Generally speaking, going from medical assisting to RN may involve transitioning from a clinic/office environment to working in a hospital. Some medical assistants who already work in a hospital, should they go on to earn a nursing degree, may be able to find an RN job in their current hospital in the future.
Choose your nursing pathway with Herzing
Get in touch with our admissions team and we can help you choose which degree pathway is right for you. We offer both associate and bachelor's degree options with opportunity to transfer credit from prior college coursework to help minimize time and cost:
- Program length: 20-24 months
- Credits: 72-73 credits
- Availability: 6 campus locations, available online in select U.S. states
- Program length: 36 months
- Credits: 120 credits
- Availability: 10 campus locations, available online in select U.S. states
Take your next career step with Herzing
Medical Assisting is a great healthcare career, but becoming a registered nurse might enable you to do more in your career and advance to another position.
Whatever pathway you decide to pursue, make sure you first ask a lot of questions so you can learn as much as possible about your options!
Discover Herzing's many nursing program options
* BLS pay estimates calculate the median annual wage for various occupations. Per the BLS the median wage for an occupation is: "The wage at which half of the workers in the occupation earned more than that amount, and half earned less. Median wage data are from the BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey." Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), U.S. Department of Labor, Occupational Outlook Handbook 2024. BLS median wage estimates do not represent entry-level wages and/or salaries. Multiple factors, including prior experience, age, geographic market in which you want to work, and degree level and field, will affect career outcomes, including starting salary and earnings as an experienced employee. Herzing neither represents that its graduates will earn the median salaries calculated by BLS for a particular job nor guarantees that graduation from its program will result in a job, promotion, particular wage or salary, or other career growth.