Pros
Probably the fact that you get to interact with patients
Cons
Let me start off with the training, which is the most important thing. The theory aspect of the training lasted for ONLY 3 days and was supposed to be from 9:30 am-6:30 pm. Turns out the trainer wanted to go home earlier so we would finish as EARLY AS 3:30 pm, which really sucked for new medical assistants since they needed all help they need. A thick booklet was handed out ON THE DAY OF THE TRAINING and the trainer expected us to have everything read before hand. How do we do that when the training location is 2 hours away? It takes up to 2 hrs to get there and 2 hrs back.. That's 4 hours wasted and by the time you get home, it's time to sleep and you have to get up super early the next morning so you can get to training on time. The theory aspect was rushed like as if there was a blackout coming and we wouldn't have access to electricity or something. We didn't get an opportunity to completely and properly practice the clinical skills such as PFTs, hearing tests, Snellen etc so we can be confident with them. A lot of the material was skipped as well. Then there were shadow shifts, which were ok since you were learning something. The doctors, however, didn't care that you were new and had high expectations of you asking you to do things you were still unaware of and learning. The SHADOW SHIFTS WON'T TEACH YOU EVERYTHING EITHER BECAUSE THE MEDICAL ASSISTANTS YOU ARE SHADOWING ARE RUSHING EVERYTHING WITH YOU. Lets talk about the doctors now. You are in luck if you get a patient doctor who is polite when giving you feedback and is willing to help you when you are not aware of certain things. This is a once in a blue moon doctor. Most of the doctors there were highly critical and kept scolding you for not doing things right. They would lower your self esteem by using harsh words, complain, and backbite with other doctors and even medical assistants (who have been working their longer). They expected you to know everything in a short amount of time. How do you do that when you weren't even properly trained? There are times when you are handling patients for two doctors at the same time and they get angry when you are slow, which is highly likely when working with two doctors. We have to be supermen and women in order to work in this place. A job with very low pay considering the amount of work that you have to do, which is 10x more then the doctor. You are doing ALL THE PAPER WORK AS WELL AS BRINGING PATIENTS IN AND PREPARING THEM.