Should medication aides exist?

Wouldn't you rather have an RN or LPN, who is licensed? If nurses refused to work with unlicensed Medication Aides, Nursing homes would have no choice but to hire more nurses. I never understood why nurses just bend over and take it. Its not like the DON, or wife of the CEO would come down and pass meds in place of the medication aides if the nurse refused to work with them.

Then you could call the State and report the Nursing Home for not meeting the requirements concening med passes.

Lindarn, RN, BSN, CCRN
Spokane, Washington

Well, there was a sweet, quiet lady who just sat around in her wheelchair she did not talk much, always looked and acted lethargic. She was taking digoxin twice daily. So I watched the med aide take the apical pulse and give the med. I asked afterward what was her heart rate. Amazingly she calmly replies 50. The RN did not look worried either. The RN said, " Oh, she always runs low like that."

You have the right and obligation to the well being of your patients to refuse any assignment you feel to be unsafe. There are numerous staffing agencies out there that can send CNA's and nurses right away with a simple phone call. The more you work short, the more money your facility makes. As the stories in this thread prove, advocating for medication aides leaves great potential for risk of harm to the patients that we have sworn to protect. Nursing home reform is greatly needed, but this is going in the opposite direction!

This happened at begining of shift my first day on this unit before knowing any of the pts. But like I said, the RN was not concerned. I later read the MAR which states not to give if AP less than 60. If I'd known this patient was getting digoxin and/or the med-aide was going to give it anyway without telling the RN first about the heart rate, I would have stopped her.