It can take less than 2 years to become a dental assistant well-prepared to succeed right from the start.

How much less depends on what educational pathway you choose. With Herzing University in Minneapolis you have two options:

• Diploma in Dental Assisting: 16 months (average)
• Associate of Applied Science in Dental Assisting: 20 months (average)

Once you’ve graduated, all that’s left is getting certified to position yourself best to find your first job in dental assisting.

Dental assisting can be hard if it’s not the right type of job for your personality—or if you’re unprepared to succeed in the position.

Earning a formal education helps you build the knowledge and skills to be comfortable in the role right from the start.

Dental assisting can be a great career choice for the right type of person!

If you have good interpersonal, listening, and organizational skills, you have the potential to be an excellent dental assistant. Dental assistants can take on many types of tasks, and you must be prepared to be a versatile team player, eager to do whatever is needed to help things run smoothly.

Dental assistants typically enjoy regular office hours (evenings and/or weekends, in some cases), a variety of job duties, and a strong foundation of experience to advance their career in the future.

Enrolling in a diploma or degree program to become a dental assistant can really be worth it!

Dental assistants help dentists deliver dental care to patients by taking on a mix of patient care and administrative duties. Their scope of practice depends on state regulations, but common responsibilities of a dental assistant include:

• Prepare patients for treatments and procedures
• Take x-rays
• Recordkeeping
• Scheduling appointments
• Assist patients in billing and payment
• Sterilizing instruments, and assisting dentists during procedures
• Taking medical history, blood pressure, and pulse before a procedure
• Talk to patients about proper oral hygiene

What dental assistants do on a daily basis depends on the specific roles and responsibilities included in the job description, which can vary by employer.

Yes! It’s a career path with excellent pay, a very positive employment outlook, and full of potential to make a real impact in your community helping people heal.

If you have no experience in nursing, you have a long way to go before practicing as a nurse practitioner. Nurse practitioner represents a type of Advanced Practice Registered Nurse (APRN) demanding extensive education and experience. You cannot become a nurse practitioner without a nursing degree.

To become a nurse practitioner you will need to earn a Master of Science in Nursing (MSN) degree.

We offer an MSN Direct Entry program for those with a non-nursing bachelor’s degree to provide a faster pathway to graduate-level study. You will then need to enroll in a post master’s certificate program to earn the specialty skills required to practice as an NP in the concentration of your choosing.

Primary factors influencing nurse practitioner pay are experience, where you work, degree level, and the state in which you practice. Your specialty, and the demand for those services in your area, can also potentially impact how much you can make.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the highest paid nurse practitioners work in Community Food and Housing, and Emergency and Other Relief Services industry, indicating nurse practitioners working in emergency care may demand the highest salaries on average. However, specialty is just one of many factors influencing pay, and it’s still possible to make a competitive salary in primary care, acute care, family practice, mental health or any other NP focus.

The highest degree you've earned can also make an impact. Earning a Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) may increase your salary potential as a nurse practitioner. Medscape’s 2021 APRN Compensation Report states nurse practitioners with a doctorate make about 5% more than those with a master’s degree.¹

The BLS reports nurse practitioners across all specialties earn an average annual salary of $128,490 per year ($61.78 per hour).* No matter the specialty, nurse practitioner represents a potentially lucrative career path with an average salary well above the national average across all occupations.

1. Hurt, A. (2021, December 3). Average income for advanced practice nurses continued to increase during pandemic: Survey. Medscape. https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/964081

Daily life as a medical assistant can vary quite a bit based on the exact roles and responsibilities associated with the job.

Some medical assistants work at a front desk and primarily answer phones, speak with patients, scheduling appointments and greet patients as they enter the office.

Other medical assistants may work in the back office in a clinical role, taking patients’ vital signs or obtaining their medical history. Some may even be responsible for in-house laboratory procedures, like drawing blood, drug screens or EKGs.

You can learn more about the typical day in the life of a medical assistant from someone who’s done it for over 20 years.