Taylor works as a medical assistant in a dermatology clinic, and she's using that job to get herself to PA school.

She started at the front desk. Now she's full time in the back, checking patients in, triaging, and assisting during exams. If you're trying to figure out how to get patient care hours that actually count for something, this is a real look at one way to do it.

What we talk about:

• How Taylor moved from the front desk into a full-time MA role
• What a medical assistant actually does day to day
• Why these hours count as patient care experience
• The hard parts, including managing patient expectations and office policies
• What working in the clinic taught her about being a PA
• Why she wants more responsibility than the MA role gives her

Resources:

Free resume download: https://www.thepaplatform.com/services/free-resume-download

Free application timeline: https://www.thepaplatform.com/services/free-application-timeline

CASPA GPA calculator: https://www.thepaplatform.com/pa-school-caspa-gpa-calculator

One-on-one pre-PA counseling: https://www.thepaplatform.com/services/pre-pa-counseling

Welcome to the Pre PA Club podcast.

If you want to learn how to become a physician assistant, you're in the right place.

I'm your host, Savannah Perry.

Let's get to it.

Hey, guys, Today I am doing an interview with someone that you've probably heard me talk about.

So Taylor is here with me and we're actually doing an in person interview because that would be weird to do it over the computer since we are in the same place.

But Taylor is a medical assistant where I work, and I work with her every single day.

And she's also one of my best friends and she's also going to PA school.

So she's written some blog posts for me before and I'll link to those in the description.

Just about being a medical assistant and kind of her journey and her story.

But I thought it would be fun for her to come on the podcast and also just kind of talk to us about what she does and give you some insight.

I know that being a medical assistant is a really great way to get patient care hours, but sometimes it can be difficult to find jobs or you may not really know what is expected of you as a medical assistant or what you'll actually be doing.

So we work in dermatology, if you didn't already know that.

And like I said, Taylor and I literally work together all day long for eight hours.

So I'll let her tell you about what she does, but she'll answer some questions and just kind of will follow along with what she's doing.

So I'm gonna let Taylor introduce herself and then, yeah, we'll go from there.

So, hi, I'm Taylor.

Thanks for having me on the podcast, Savannah.

I'm a longtime listener, first time caller, really love podcasts, so I'm excited to be on one.

But yeah, so I work with Savannah.

I've worked at the clinic that we work at for like six and a half years.

And coming out of college, it was my first experience in the medical field.

So a little bit about my background.

I graduated from college with a degree in public relations and kind of my backstory in that.

Growing up, I always said that I wanted to be the next Katie Couric.

People literally signed my senior yearbook.

Can't wait to see you on the Today show.

So.

So that kind of ended or when I, my senior year of high school, I did an internship with our local television station and kind of got to really experience what the media business was like and broadcasting.

And I realized I don't really think I want to do that because It's a lot of nights and weekends and working your way up from the bottom of just being a little reporter.

So I still majored in mass communications.

My emphasis was in public relations.

And so coming out of college I thought that I wanted to work at a non profit.

That was my ideal job situation.

So I moved to a new city and started looking for jobs and couldn't find anything.

And so for a while I worked at my favorite quick service restaurant called Chick Fil A because you got to make money somehow.

But through that and through my church, I actually got connected to the clinic that I work at now.

So long story, the lady that cuts my boss's hair knew one of my like kind of mentors.

And so they connected me and got me plugged in.

They were trying to hire someone for the front desk reception because their girl was going off to PA school.

So I interviewed and I've been there ever since and love it and didn't really know what to expect.

And I can probably talk some more about that too.

Well, yeah.

How did you go from working the front desk where you were doing like check in, check out, to becoming a medical assistant?

So when they hired me, I was front desk mainly.

And then one morning a week I would work with a physician and relieve her medical assistant one morning a week to do paperwork and stuff.

So I got to experience that one on one patient interaction and be able to be in the room with a physician and see what goes into a physical exam and her day to day practices.

And that's what I love the most.

I enjoyed that a lot more than answering phone calls and doing all these different paperwork things.

But it also gave me good insight into how a medical office works because I never had that experience.

So I did that for several years and then maybe two years.

And then the physician hired a PA who was right out of school and I became her medical assistant full time.

And ever since then I've been working with RPA under the supervising physician that Savannah works with.

Yeah, so that was somebody else before me.

And then once I came on, Taylor worked with me.

So working up front.

Well, first of all, in your interview, did they ask you anything?

I mean, were there any qualifications?

Looking back, they said, are you okay with blood?

And I said sure and went into all the different kind of tasks and responsibilities that I would have.

So they explained to me what it would look like being in the back with patients, helping with biopsies, assisting with surgery sometimes.

And so growing up I kind of went to like, I had to like do Some I had to give myself shots.

So growing up, like, I was kind of aware of, like, some medical thing, so I was like, I'm fine with blood.

And then I think Savannah's probably said the first time she saw a biopsy, she wanted to pass out.

And I kind of was the same way.

I just didn't expect that it would be that much.

So you kind of are told things, but then when you actually experience, it's a little different.

So that was the one main question they asked me in my interview, and then I got to experience it.

You're good with it all now?

Yeah.

Oh, yeah.

Every day.

So you.

Just to clarify, you are not certified as a medical assistant.

You are strictly hired and trained on the job to perform the role and the duties of a medical assistant.

So it is possible to get jobs.

And I think, do you feel like your work ethic or anything as far as how you performed in the front helped them to see that you would be good in the back, if that makes sense?

I think so, yeah.

So going in, I had no experience in the medical field, didn't know a lot of medical terminology, didn't know what bid and TID meant, and just simple things like that.

So working in the front desk, having to answer phone calls with patients, having to send messages to the physician regarding prescriptions and things, and being able to read and understand, like, clinic notes kind of really gave me an understanding of what happens in the back.

And I think sometimes if you're just answering phone calls all day, you may not understand exactly what goes on in, like, an exam and what I was expected or what the patient wants.

So I think it really did help me, because going in cold turkey, I think I went straight to the back.

I would be so lost.

I would be like, spell that medicine for me again.

What do you mean?

I would be a lot slower, which, I mean, I feel like starting out, you're always gonna.

It takes a little time to get comfortable, but I think it really did help me.

So tell us, just on a daily basis, like, what does your job look like?

What do you do?

So I like to say that I keep Savannah organized and running on time,.

Which is helpful because I get really stressed out if I'm not on time.

So basically, a lot of my responsibilities are main responsibility is checking in and working up the patients that Savannah sees every day, kind of looking over her schedule, making sure we know what's kind of coming for the day, what to expect.

Yeah.

And so I'll take our patients back and check them in Ask them what they're here for, triage, like, what's going on, if they're a follow up on acne, what medicines they're using.

And I'll tell Savannah and we'll.

I go in with her to every exam.

So I'm there helping her with physical exam and stuff and sending prescriptions and kind of keeping track of everything that we do.

I answer a lot of our messages and send those to Savannah and do some prior authorizations, which has to deal with insurance, which is probably the least favorite part of my job.

But that's medicine today.

So it's a lot of trying to be organized and running together.

And I think that's we work well together because we can.

The more you work with somebody, you know what they kind of like and how they work well.

And so, yeah, I always say that.

Taylor can read my mind, which is very helpful.

Until I do something crazy and then mix things up a little bit and.

I'm like, what are you doing?

That's not what you normally do.

Yeah, sometimes I get a little crazy.

What would you say is the most difficult part of your job, besides working with me when I'm in a bad mood?

I really enjoy working with you.

I think it's probably just dealing with patients.

I think that's one thing I learned going into working in the medical field is I didn't realize just how sometimes patients can be very difficult.

And so another interest, like, coming from, like, working at Chick Fil A and customer service, like, the customer's always right.

And sometimes I had to realize, like, sometimes the patient isn't always right.

And just learning that where you have to kind of draw the line sometimes and be a little, like, not so nice when people want things that they can't have.

I'm trying to explain that.

Well, I think just like, if a patient.

We have patients sometimes who call and will demand a refill, but they haven't been seen in over a year.

And that's just an office policy.

And so they'll get very upset about having to come in and be seen.

But at the end of the day, like, we have to keep that patient safe.

And so sometimes that means saying no and just sticking to our office policies.

And I think Taylor's the one that ends up having to explain that to.

A lot of patients.

And so they can get a little feisty and a little just demanding.

And I think it's sometimes easier to try to give somebody what they want to appease them and make them happy, than to actually do what you're supposed to do.

And that's just part of the ethics of working in medicine.

So that is something that we run into.

But I think the more you.

You just learn how to deal with it, right?

Yeah.

And it's like just learning to relate with people, too, because you're gonna come across every type of personality, too, and just learning how to deal with that.

And then paperwork is probably also my least favorite thing.

Just prioritizations and trying to keep, like, biopsies and, like, skin cancers that we have that need to be treated and have been treated, that kind of stuff.

The kind of mundane things.

I'd much rather.

I think we would both much rather just be seeing patients all day than kind of doing all the not fun, mundane stuff.

So.

But it has to be done.

So exactly what do you.

So obviously I feel like you are a great medical assistant, and I'll be extremely sad when you go to PA school, but what do you feel like just after being in this position for a few years and kind of the experience you have, like, what do you feel like you can do as a medical assistant to just make sure you're doing the best job possible and make things easier for your provider?

I mean, it's almost, to me, analogous to a PA and a physician.

I'm there to make my physician's job easier, which, technically, I mean, we're seeing separate patients.

We're not together the way you and I are, but at the end of the day, like, it's very similar.

So, yeah, I think it really helps when you have a good relationship with the provider that you're working for.

And, like, certain things that I think have really helped is like, evaluating.

Like, when we see when things don't go well or something is off, we like to talk about it and be like, how can we make this better?

One thing is always being willing to ask questions and figure out where you can help.

Because I feel like a lot of times in a lot of offices, there may be several medical assistants.

And so a lot of people are, like, sitting around sometime and just always making sure that you're staying on task.

And she can link.

I think I wrote a blog post, like, 10 Ways to be a Good MA Time management is one thing.

Always, like, trying to learn and understand as much as you can when it comes to, like, certain things.

In dermatology right now is mail order pharmacies that all of our different dermatological drugs go to, and keeping that all straight so that Savannah's job is easier.

I think that's one Thing that you.

That I want to as a medical assistant is to make the provider that I'm working for his job easier, whether that be just helping them with just keeping patients on schedule and not getting behind, or whether it's knowing where to send the strike medicine so they don't get calls back about how it's thousands of dollars.

Yeah.

And that's what I mean, I think.

I think for me and Taylor, we both have, like.

We both consider our patients to be our priority, and we want to make sure that they have a great experience when they come to see us, because our jobs are part customer service.

And then we also want to make sure that they're getting the most affordable medications in the quickest manner.

I mean, we really try to make sure that they're getting what they need and what we want them to have, even if sometimes that takes more work on our part.

And it's like, we want our patients to be better.

Like, guys, we.

Why we're here.

At the end of the day, we want them to be better.

We want them to get the treatment that they need and deserve.

So, yeah.

So I think having that as your priority makes you want to do a good job, too.

Can you talk about maybe the difficulties of working with different providers or if there's any difference in working with a PA and an MD in what you see?

So in our Office, there are five different providers, and each one has their own MA, but sometimes the other MAs are out or a physician's out.

So we kind of.

It wouldn't be odd if you were to fill in for another physician, which is good because you see how other people practice medicine.

But it's also kind of complicated at times trying to figure out what this physician.

Everybody practices differently and what they prefer over and what they place an importance on.

So, like, sometimes I'll fill in for our supervising physician.

And she has been practicing for several years.

She works very fast, and so it's kind of intimidating sometimes because you're like, I've got to keep up with her.

I've got to make sure that all of her.

All of the prescriptions get sent in, or if we do, she sees a lot of, like, overall skin checks, a lot of skin cancer patients.

She's usually doing several biopsies and trying to keep all that organized.

It's kind of a difficult part of just working with another provider, too.

And she has a bigger patient load, too, which is just something that you can.

It's.

It takes some time adjusting to, but that's probably one thing and just like, just realizing how everybody practices differently and it's just kind of one difficulty that can happen.

Yeah.

You just kinda have to adjust.

I think that's a good.

Like another thing going back to being a good MA is that you're.

You're easily.

You can adjust easily to different situations.

Flexible.

Flexible.

That's the word I was looking for.

Thank you.

And in our practice, I mean, I don't necessarily.

I think besides just maybe being a little bit busier, that's probably the biggest difference in working with a PA and an md.

Yeah.

Like, we see all this same patient types.

Like, she doesn't see anything super crazy that Savannah wouldn't see.

She just sees several more a day.

And usually they've all had melanoma.

Yep.

And all need overalls.

Get Jackson.

So tell me, talk to me a little bit about when and how you decided that you might want to go to PA school since you kind of didn't necessarily have that background at first.

So I went into being a medical assistant, being like, I know I don't want to do this forever kind of thing.

And the more that I've done it, the more I've enjoyed medicine and have really just come to enjoy the workplace of a medical clinic.

How it's busy and fast paced and just how medicine can help people.

And so in thinking of that, like, one thing I never want to be is just complacent or comfortable in where I'm at.

Like, I always want to think about what the next step is or what, like, is ahead in the future.

And I knew I didn't want to be an MA forever.

And so I thought about, like, oh, I work with a PA all the time.

Like, I kind of thought about it.

And then my mom was always like, you should go to PA school, Taylor.

You don't need to.

Like, you should do that.

And I was like, okay, yeah, whatever.

So several years went by and I just kept thinking about it.

It was always in the back of my head.

And then two year and a half ago, I finally just, like, had the thought, like, you know what?

I never want to look back in five years and be like, why did I not decide to do this?

I really love medicine.

Like, what's next for me?

And that next step would be PA school.

And so with my PR degree, I have no science classes.

So the first step for me was to take prereqs, which was.

It was hard, like, trying to decide, like, do I really want to do this?

I'm still working full time.

This is where My priority is I love my job, and I don't want to give that up and balancing that.

But, yeah, I think I just didn't want to look back and be like, why did I never do this?

I didn't want to have any regrets.

And so I'm at the season in my life where I could do it.

And so that was a big thing.

I never want to, like, be complacent.

I think that's one thing that motivated me to be a pa.

So do you feel.

I guess what, like, I was a CNA for a little while, and I agree I didn't really want to be a CNA forever, but, like, at the time, I wanted to be a pa.

So in what ways or, like, at what point did you realize that you felt limited as a medical assistant, or do you feel like you're just ready for more responsibility?

Like, I think it's both things.

So I would see, like, every day I would be with a PA who is seeing her own patients prescribing medicines for people, doing procedures.

And I was like, I could do that.

Like, a part of me.

And, like, I've been around dermatology long enough to where I can kind of, like, I understand a little bit now.

Like, going into it, I didn't know anything, but now I can be like, okay, like, these are the different types of skin cancers and, like, acne.

This is, like, the difference between, like, how antibiotics can treat certain things and topicals treat another.

And so it was like, I have this knowledge, and a part of me is like, I feel like I could do.

Be like a PA and do this.

And then.

What was the other part of your question?

Oh, just kind of like when you.

Like when you started, I guess, was it, like, when you got comfortable as an MA that you guys realized that?

Definitely when.

So working.

When I first started in the front, I didn't.

We didn't have a pa, so I didn't really.

I really didn't know what a PA was till we hired one.

I didn't understand, like, the scope of what they could do and all these things.

So I think it was then.

And then working with the PA for several months and seeing what they do that I was like, I think I could do this.

And just the experience you have of working beside some.

A PA is invaluable.

Like, because day in and day out, you get to see exactly what it entails of being a physician assistant and kind of what goes into it.

So that was a big thing.

Like, I don't think if I ever.

If it wasn't at this job, I probably still would not know what a PA was.

And who knows what I'd be doing now.

That's funny.

Yeah.

No, and that's what.

Even when I think back to when I started, I didn't really know what was going on.

I mean, in PA School, we only have two weeks of derm and so going in.

I mean, I had trained for a couple months, but I really.

I almost feel like I depended on Taylor a lot because she knew more about the medicines as far as how to get them and things like that.

And I would have an idea.

But, yeah, I mean, she definitely helped me out a lot.

And that just goes to show how a medical assistant can be so valuable.

There's no way that.

Because right now, technically, I can have up to 35 patients on my schedule every day.

We probably see an average of 27, 28 a day.

And so there's no way I could do that on my own without an awesome medical assistant.

Like, it just wouldn't happen.

I'm like, oh, my gosh, that would be so much.

Just teamwork is important in medicine too.

Yeah.

And we definitely get to work on that every day.

Let's see.

Do you think you'll want to do derm?

Oh, I'd love to.

So that's what people ask me when they're like, oh, you want to go to PA school?

You want to work in derm, right?

And I was like, well, that's like, all I have experience in, and I love it, but I'm open to whatever.

Like, if I get into PA school and love some other specialty or love family practice, like, that is gonna be okay with me.

But I would love to be in dermatology.

It's really fun.

And I love, like, the variety.

And I know Savannah's talked about this, but, like, the variety of patients that you see, you see anywhere from babies to, like, 90 year olds and everything each day is different, which is what I really like.

I think I would get bored super easy if I was seeing the same things every day.

So that's one thing that I really like about Dermot, but also, like, just.

I don't know.

I think I'm at a point right now.

I'm just like, I just want to learn anything about medicine.

Like, I'm taking anatomy, and I have to do a project on hypertension.

And so I'm like, ooh, let me learn, like, what I can about this.

Which may not help me really, in my job right now, but maybe one day.

Well, I mean, we definitely.

We see patients with other.

Other problems, but, yeah, we'll continue to kind of follow Taylor on her PA School journey, and since I get to see her every day right now.

But, yeah.

So thanks for talking to me, Taylor.

Oh, yeah, anytime.

If you want to tell them anything terrible about me or anything, you can.

Savina's great.

Fun fact about Taylor.

She loves golf.

I do love golf.

I'm a golf nerd.

And we both love Taylor Swift.

We do.

But she loves One Direction.

I do.

Former One Direction.

Yes.

Rip Taylor travels more than anyone.

I do.

I love travel.

And that's one thing.

Like, that's helped.

Like, Savannah and I have similar likes, and we enjoy the same things a lot.

So it's been fun to be able.

To work with her.

And she's a big reason, too, why I have been able to understand the whole process of applying for PA school and what it entails.

And I think if I didn't have that, I would be so lost.

So what she's doing is a great asset, and I feel like I've sent people her way sometimes.

Yeah.

But she's very humble here about what I'm doing.

Well, this was fun, Taylor.

Yeah.

We should do it again.

Yeah, anytime.

Thanks for coming.

Bye.

Bye.

Well, I hope y' all enjoyed hearing from Taylor and.

And I appreciate her just coming and kind of talking to me about what we do every single day.

So if you have any questions for Taylor, you can DM me on Instagram and make sure that you are following along with the podcast.

You can subscribe on itunes, leave a review, and then if you have any questions, you can also go to my website, thepaplatform.com podcast and you can actually leave a voice question if you want that answered in the future.

But lots of great episodes coming up.

As always, if there's anything you want to hear about, I want to know.

And, yeah, I hope everyone has a great week.