A Day in the Life of a Medical Assistant
The scene early morning in the Woodhull waiting room.
By SAIMUN AMIN
Nazma Begum, a medical assistant at the Woodhull Hospital emergency room in Brooklyn, can still remember the time she was on staff when a patient came in with multiple gunshot wounds.
“He was seriously injured,” she said. “As soon as I heard about it, the adrenaline started to kick in and the whole emergency room turned their attention to the patient. Luckily I was able to handle myself well.”
“I feel bad when I see these kinds of patients,” she said. “I wonder how they got into this situation. I always hope that they make a full recovery.”
The emergency room has a code system based on colors and letters. For example, code pink is when there are complications with a newborn baby. The most common code for the emergency room is code R, which is for psych patients.
“You never know what patient is coming,” Begum said. “You have to mentally prepare yourself for anything. When a patient comes in, your mind is not about the stress, but about how to help the patient.”
Stress among emergency room workers became more severe in 2020, at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic.
“I was scared,” Begum said. “I had to put myself in an environment with Covid patients every day. Even with facemasks, social distancing, eye protectors, gowns, and gloves, I still caught Covid.”
When she found out, “an immediate shiver ran through my body,” Begum said. “I felt scared because of the many patients I had seen unfortunately pass away.”
Her case was more severe than most. “It took me about three months to recover, including hospital admission,” she said. “Covid hit me hard. I had to quarantine from home for about two months. I wasn’t able to see my children.”
But now she’s better, and back at Woodhull. “There are closer ones [hospitals],” she said, “but I prefer Woodhull. I get up at 6:30 a.m. to get to work on time. I don’t like to arrive late.”
Her commute is about an hour. After Begum clocks in, she settles into her seat and begins registering patients.
“I interview the patient, I do EKG, blood draw, basic things to help the patients before the doctor sees them,” Begum said. “At the start of the day, it is not that busy, but then there is a rush of patients that come in.”
Being a medical assistant is more mentally demanding than physically demanding, she said. It’s a job that requires a lot of adaptability as well as patience. “Sometimes patients don’t want to cooperate with nurses, doctors, or clerks,” she explained. “You have to always be ready for anything to happen at any given time.”
It’s a job that’s in high demand. Approximately 136 million people visit the emergency room every year, according to the CDC. Medical assistants can make up to $40,000-$50,000 a year.
Begum enjoys assisting patients with getting the help they need and would recommend the job to others. “There are sometimes disturbing things that you may see in the hospital, but if you are okay with that, it's a really good job,” she said.
“We stuck together, and got through it [the pandemic], with hope and luck,” she said. “We stayed strong, and we will continue to stay strong.”