What are the main differences between medical assistants and nurses?

Although they share some similar job duties there are a large number of differences between the duties performed by a medical assistant and those performed by a nurse. MA are typically assigned a variety of responsibilities including patient care and administrative duties.

Job duties for nurses typically focus on patient care and include a minimal amount of administrative duties. Medical assistants follow a doctor’s orders and only perform the type of care expressed directly by the physician. Nurses also follow doctor’s order; however they are also trained to write patient care plans.

Another difference in job duties for MA and nurses include administrative duties. MA often perform administrative duties such as scheduling patients, answering telephones and medical billing. Administrative duties performed by nurses include documenting a patient’s condition and writing care plans.

Hi Kylie, the positions have similarities but there are some key differences. Medical assistants are responsible for collecting and recording patient medical histories, maintaining medical records, taking vital signs as well as administrative duties. A nurse normally focuses exclusively on patient care while following doctors' orders and have very little administrative duties. There is also a differences in their salaries for instance medical assistant averages about $30,000 a year and a nurse up to $69,000 per year. For more information check out the link below https://www.medicalassistantcoursesonline.net/career-comparisons/rn/