NON-Nurses Giving Shots in MD Offices

[nyforlove]

I apologize if this already has been discussed elsewhere, but wanted to point out the following:

I was in my MD's office for a physical and wanted two vaccines before international travel. The NON-nurse "medical assistant"--UNlicensed in NY--came in to administer the vaccines and I told her she was violating the law--she said she does it every day as part of her job! I told the MD I would get my vaccines elsewhere. Apparently this practice is rampant--at least here in NYC. MD Offices don't want to pay for patient safety by having a licensed nurse. ADMINISTRATION of medications is restricted BY LAW to licensed MDs, RNs/LPNs, and some others, but NOT "medical assistants." Have the Nursing Associations thought about cracking down on this? I do NOT think I'm being petty: administrating a medication--particularly, via injection--is serious stuff---in this case, she was going to use incorrect needles (assuming of course that she didn't plan on using the SAME needle for BOTH vaccines), amongst other errors...Upset about this. It's NOT brain surgery, but there are serious risks with all medications, which is why legally only specified licensed personnel may administer them. Your thoughts? Thanks.

[Terra Runyan]

I am not sure how it goes in NY, but I know here in Colorado, a medical assistant if trained by a doctor and works under the doctors license is allowed to give medication injections.

I am a medical assistant and have been one for many years. I asked my MD this question when I saw it and he stated that under Colorado Law, Medical Assistants can be trained in the office under a doctor to perform certian tasks.

For example, I have given and removed sutures, started and stopped IVs, given injections. (A medical assistant is trained to calculate the proper dosage).

I know that here, the ONLY thing a MA can not inject is narcotics.

[OCNRN63, RN]

I am not sure how it goes in NY, but I know here in Colorado, a medical assistant if trained by a doctor and works under the doctors license is allowed to give medication injections.

I am a medical assistant and have been one for many years. I asked my MD this question when I saw it and he stated that under Colorado Law, Medical Assistants can be trained in the office under a doctor to perform certian tasks.

For example, I have given and removed sutures, started and stopped IVs, given injections. (A medical assistant is trained to calculate the proper dosage).

I know that here, the ONLY thing a MA can not inject is narcotics.

Terrifying.

[Batman25]

Terrifying.

My heart almost jumped out of my chest reading it.

[Terra Runyan]

Terrifying.

Terrifying?

Just because someone is LICENSED does not mean that they know what they are doing. I worked at a hospital for a very long time. I had nurses call me and ask me how to draw from a PICC line. I had nurses calling me asking me what the difference between a CBC and a CMP was. I actually had an RN ask me to calculate the dosage because she was never any good at math. How does that make you feel??

I worked very hard to get to where I am. I am trained to do so. I am a Medical Assistant. And just some information for some people who don't know... the only thing a medical assistant cant do that a Licensed Practical Nurse can do, is start and stop an IV, without a doctor present.

I graduated from a accredited program, and have a degree in Allied Health. So, yes. I know what I am doing.

[OCNRN63, RN]

Terrifying?

Just because someone is LICENSED does not mean that they know what they are doing. I worked at a hospital for a very long time. I had nurses call me and ask me how to draw from a PICC line. I had nurses calling me asking me what the difference between a CBC and a CMP was. I actually had an RN ask me to calculate the dosage because she was never any good at math. How does that make you feel??

I worked very hard to get to where I am. I am trained to do so. I am a Medical Assistant. And just some information for some people who don't know... the only thing a medical assistant cant do that a Licensed Practical Nurse can do, is start and stop an IV, without a doctor present.

I graduated from a accredited program, and have a degree in Allied Health. So, yes. I know what I am doing.

You are terrifying, and you are also not a nurse. Tell yourself whatever you want, you're not a nurse, and I wouldn't want an unlicensed person doing any of the procedures you claim to have done on me or mine.

I know my profession has short fallings and people in it who are marginally qualified. That doesn't mean MAs are a super alternative to educated, licensed professional nurses.

[netglow, ASN, RN]

Terra Runyan, tell us what hospital you work for. I think all the nursing and med students on this board would love to know where they could work without a degree or license.

[VioletKaliLPN, LPN]

Medical Assistants cannot assess or write plans of care, it is not within their scope. Nurses can use Nursing judgment to hold medications if a situation warrants it, a medical assistant cannot.

MA does not equal LPN, not even close, even though a lot of MA schools love to tell MA's they are 'close' to LPN's.

[VioletKaliLPN, LPN]

Yeah, umm, I do not want an MA giving me sutures of any kind, I do not care of they were shown how. I would choose another practice faster than you can say "HECK NO!".

[JDZ344]

Terrifying?

Just because someone is LICENSED does not mean that they know what they are doing. I worked at a hospital for a very long time. I had nurses call me and ask me how to draw from a PICC line. I had nurses calling me asking me what the difference between a CBC and a CMP was. I actually had an RN ask me to calculate the dosage because she was never any good at math. How does that make you feel??

It makes me feel VERY glad that those RNs a)recognised they had forgotten/didn't know how to do something and sought help! I am a NA. I've sometimes had RNs come to me for help with things because they, like us, are human and forget things or plain don't know or just because I have worked there longer than some of them so I have a good idea of policy. They also sometimes get me to double check their calculations because they know I am good at maths. Asking for help doesn't make you more or less capable, licensed or not.

By the way, I'm not disagreeing that a license= common sense/competence. But nursing programmes/sitting the NCLEX weeds out the most obviously incompetent, I think. I have no dog in the fight about MA's, we don't even have them in this country as far as I know.

[m.allene]

Medical Assistants today are being trained to daw blood and give injections. It is now part of their certification.

[Purple93]

I know I'm late but this is what I found.

http://www.medicalassistant.net/can_and_cannot_do.htm

It says as long as the MD is present

[PeepnBiscuitsRN]

When I worked in the clinic I had straight MA's I worked with who had been Medical Assistants since before I was born and probably knew more in their pinky than I did in my whole brain. Medical Assistants, be they registered MA's or CMA's or just MA's are part of the team in the clinic and in other settings at times they go through a year of training and, while they don't get the same kind of education as an LPN or RN, they still know what they're doing (one would hope).

One thing I didn't know, and a CMA I worked with told me this: after you graduate from Medical Assistant training, you take the certification exam, which (at the time she told me this) is paper and pencil, and then they have to wait 6 months before they know if they passed! So while they are waiting in transit, so to speak, they remain plain "medical assistant" and the two that I worked with who have been non certified or registerd, have been MA's since the 70's and 80's.

So I guess as for me I wouldn't second guess an MA giving me a shot, unless she was REALLY being careless.