Lawrence Jones has worked as a Medical Assistant for the past 5 years and is currently in school to be a Licensed Practical Nurse. It’s easy to see not only his fascination with the health and science of the human body, but his passion to help others who cannot always help themselves.
We sat down with Lawrence to get his thoughts on the medical field, school/life balance, and the rewarding and hard parts of going back to school for a medical degree. We’ve highlighted his key points and included the full interview below.
Juggling work, school, and family is possible… but there’s one key thing that makes it easier.
Lawrence’s thoughts? If you want to do it, you can. But it really helps to have supportive faculty who have an understanding of life outside of the classroom.
“If you want to do it, you can. And it takes some time to get used to and you’ll be tired for the first two weeks to a month, but yeah, you can do it. I get to see my daughter every day and that’s what matters… It makes it a lot easier to have someone who is actually supportive, and all of the teachers are just – they want you to do as good as you can; helping you to be the best nurse you can be.”
Earning the medical degrees for a job you’ll love can be much easier if done in stepping stones.
Lawrence earned his Medical Assistant degree, worked for five years, and is now back in school to become an LPN. From here, he can continue to work his way up in the medical field or begin a new job in nursing. For those who are figuring out their career goals or have full-time jobs and/or families, it is far less strenuous to enter into a Medical Administration or Medical Assistant program to gain foundational knowledge and skills of the field and hop into a new job. Time is our most precious commodity, and we crafted the flexibility of our medical programs around this reality.
“It makes it easier for a lot of people because, I mean, everybody has their lives and everybody has families – or may have families and may have kids and may have whatever – and if you do it all at once, like RN to BSN, there’s just not a lot of time. So if you can do it at stepping stones and gradually as you need to do it, it makes it a lot easier.”
The medical field is more accessible than most people think.
Lawrence chose this industry years ago because, in his opinion, the medical field’s career possibilities are endless. He’s right; the number of different roles in the field of medicine is somewhere in the hundreds. The idea of earning a medical degree and working in the field can be intimidating to many. But you don’t have to have a doctorate degree to have an impactful and fulfilling career that can transform your life.
“Don’t fear. I mean, in the medical field, you can do anything you want. You can go from being LPN to a doctor of nursing… We all have medical issues, and so you don’t have to worry about having or finding a job; there’s always going to be jobs around… Some people don’t like ‘blood and guts’, but in the nursing field… you don’t have to work in surgery. You can work in an office, if you want to. So, there’s always a place you can find.”
(Lawrence does not shy away from “blood & guts” though… watch the video below to see why.)
Curious about a career change to the medical field? To get more information on Medical Programs at Chattanooga College, click here.