CNA giving medications....

Nursing Students CNA/MA

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Ok. So I went on my clinicals last week. I was at the table feeding a woman who needed assistance with her meal, when the LPN came and put medication in her drink. I didn't know what to do because if I passed her the drink, I would have been giving her the meds, and I'm not allowed to do that. But the woman couldn't hold the cup herself, and the LPN went off do do her rounds. What to do in a situation like that? If I just passed her the cup, am I going out of my scope of practice??

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This is a tricky question. You didn't put the meds in the cup. If I were the nurse, I would have given the drink myself. At a facility where I worked, a nurse was fired for having a CNA give meds. In my state we do not have CNAs perform medication aide duties. Interested to see what others say about this practice.

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BTW, you are a good CNA for bringing up this question. Most people would never give it a second thought. You should ask the supervising nurse on the unit about this.

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Specializes in MED SURG.

Go to the charge nurse right away because that LPN was supposed to stay with her until she took her meds. Just her putting it in her cup was not giving it to her. She put you in a bad situation, she knew you were helping her eat/drink. Next time tell her "Are you going to wait until she is finished drinking because I am not going to give her that cup I will get another cup to and give her something else to drink" It is your right to protect yourself. If something would have happened it would be on you, don't let anybody tell you otherwise.

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Specializes in med/surg, psych, public health.

The LPN should have stayed and watched her consume the ENTIRE contents of that cup.

If the LPN did this in a dining hall, she is actually putting other clients in danger since someone else could pick up the cup & drink from it.

This LPN is also lying on the MAR. She did not witness the pt. take the med. at the time she is going to mark off on the MAR.

Please CYA & tell the CN what happened!!

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Just agreeing with what everyone else has been saying here. My instructor has told me never to administer medications (even topical ones) to a Pt at any time because of legal reasons and it being out of your scope of practice. Its not right for the LPN to be too "busy" to make sure the resident took her meds.. the LPN was in the wrong. I would definately bring it up to your charge nurse.

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Specializes in Alzheimers and geriatric patients.

The MAR requires the person giving meds to sign off that they witnessed intake of medicines. She obviously falsified this document by having you actually administer the meds. You can get in trouble for this and it is out of your scope of practice. Kudos to you for questioning this practice! A lot of aides think nothing of it because the LPN/RN/CMT put the pills in the cup but you still aren't allowed to transfer the meds from the cup to the resident.

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Ok. So I went on my clinicals last week. I was at the table feeding a woman who needed assistance with her meal, when the LPN came and put medication in her drink. I didn't know what to do because if I passed her the drink, I would have been giving her the meds, and I'm not allowed to do that. But the woman couldn't hold the cup herself, and the LPN went off do do her rounds. What to do in a situation like that? If I just passed her the cup, am I going out of my scope of practice??[/quot

Legally yes . YOU and the LPN are out of scope. you for giving it and LPN not giving it.

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Specializes in PACU, LTC, Med-Surg, Telemetry, Psych.

I have heard about this stuff.. and it makes me question things.

I know of one assisted living in my area where CNAs give meds. The meds are put in a sealed envelope then given to the resident. So, legally the place could be off a hook due to the fact the patient administers it themselves.

Of course, if the resident is not 'with it' they do not live there... but still.

I am sure facilities would love this if they can get away with more of it. CNAs get paid 8 USD to 12 USD while LPNs get 13 USD to 20+ USD. Less labor cost and more money for the investors.

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Specializes in MED SURG.

whoever... Gives the medication they are still doing it under the RN license and she is ultimatly responsible. I would not risk it when I become an RN, I am workiing hard to be safe and to have my license.

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Very common where I work... ...and every place I've worked.

It always perturbs me when the nurse or the med aide puts the meds into an ENTIRE bowl of food or a cup. Then the resident has to sit there and eat/drink the entire thing in order to get the full dose of the med. And half of the time, the residents they are doing this to are the ones that are least likely to finish an entire bowl or drink in the first place. So then they may not be getting enough of the drug for a therapeutic effect. All they need to do is get a disposable cup and just add a few bites/sips of the food with the meds, but that must be too obvious.

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ITA with everyone else.

The LPN needs to stay there until the resident takes all the med. I am med trained (previous job, residental school) and we had to stay with them till they took everything, yet i still can't give med's given the laws in this state. There are actually some states where CNA's can pass med's.

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