Replaced by Certified Medication Aide!

Nurses LPN/LVN

Published

Yes, fellow LPNs, its happening here in Northeast Ohio! Trained and oriented CMA and was then given extreme partime hours(as were the other LPNs) while CMA gets 40hrs and benefits! And of course, they are paid less per hour. The entire program is a disaster for us LPNs as well as the patients we care for and thet dont get a choice either. No such thing as patient care...its all about money and its sickening

@lindarn

I was with you until you said that the CMAs were "nothing more than HS dropouts".

The public needs to be notified. I don't even think that most people know the job title of who's giving them a shot or medication, nor the amount of education or understanding that some of the healthcare staff has. If patients were better informed, then a lot of this would stop because patients would start complaining or refusing care.

0 Votes
Specializes in geriatrics, IV, Nurse management.
Hmm... So I guess that those of us licensed as RNs will be paying higher malpractice rates in these scenarios? We'll need the additional coverage if we become responsible for supervising both LPNs and CMAs that perform various type of medication administrations. Not sure if I want to work in that type of facility.

I doubt it. I'm not supervised by an RN and I don't need to be. My scope of practice has expanded as an RPN that I can do a lot similar to an RN. I cannot look after an unstable client, but this leaves the area very open to whom I can take care of:)

That being said, PSWs have been giving meds in Ontario for years as UCP (Unregulated Care Providers). They have their own insurance for malpractice provided by the employer and are trained by RPN/RNs. I've seen many that were a great assets to the team because they took the time to learn, and rocked it!

I was a UCP giving meds when I graduated because I was waiting on my exam results and a temp license took too long to get. Even with 2.5 years of college, I struggled pronouncing some meds - though I knew what they were for, and if I didn't, I looked them up. Heck, today I still have trouble with pronouncing newer meds.

0 Votes
Specializes in LTC, Education, Management, QAPI.

Let me just add this - In my state, VA, there is a significantly higher amount of education that 20 hours for CMA.. And yes, they dont belong in all areas. As far as giving the job away with our permission, there's not much choice, unionized or not. Since LTC MCD/MCR rates have deteriorated so much, the facilities cannot afford to pay in a lot of scenarios. This drives the need for cheaper services up- It's not the nurses giving it away, it's the healthcare system as a whole. I'm not going to get into this whold big discussion, but trust me, I am a DON and I see first hand what money comes in and goes out- Nursing homes are not money bags like it would seem they are, they're poor. They have their place, just as other healthcare facilities, but soon they won't exist if we keep taking money out of them and away from the nurses that ARE great. Yeah, when I was an LPN i'd rather have a CMA give the pill so I can spend more time monitoring it.. Sure. It's not for all settings... There is so much more to write on this but I'll stop here because typing on an iPad is not easy, LOL.. I hope the point gets across..

0 Votes

I am a CMA. Let me enlighten you all on how I got my certificate!

I took my transcript to the BON, with a form that stated my name and address. I brought them a $40 money order; they mailed me the paper, no questions asked.

That was it! I took pharmacology as a requirement for nursing school. The course was intended for us to learn the names and actions of medications...Not so much about how to administer them, or when to hold them, etc.

Not just that, but my guilty conscience weighed on me. Whose job would I be stealing, if I decided to go to management and tell them I got my med tech certificate?

I say this OVER and OVER on these boards...You nurses need to do something about your professional image! EVERYONE wears scrubs, from dietary to the secretary. Even people who have never been near an OR in their life wear green scrubs. I knew a front-desk medical assistant who routinely wore OR scrubs and told guys at the bar she was a nurse...Lol.

Granted, uniforms are usually color-coded... but the public doesn't really care enough to find out what each color stands for. There's gotta be something that can be done to differentiate nurses from non-nurses... Until something is done, corporations will exploit the public's ignorance regarding who is qualified to provide care and who isn't by using "Med Techs" and other inflated job titles to protect their bottom lines.

Thoughts?

0 Votes
Specializes in Gerontology, Med surg, Home Health.

All the studies I have read indicate that medication aides make FEWER med errors than nurses do. They just pass pills. Tney don't assess, they don't teach, they don't plan or evaluate. They pass pills. If medication aides were allowed in my state would I hire them? You bet I would. It would give the nurses more time to do what only NURSES can do.

1 Votes

I am pretty sure in Tennessee you have to work for the facility for one year full time as a tech first and have a clear criminal history.

0 Votes
Specializes in Medical surgical.

Hallo Fellow RN! 4 Years we struggled to finish this course and struggling hard with the NCLEX and now we allow our important responsibilty to Be taken by CMA? What can we do something about this? I am still here in Germany yet reading about these Updates it is very sickening. I hope I have moved you with my question?

0 Votes
Specializes in Oncology; medical specialty website.

It's the watering down of patient care being given by educated nurses, bit by bit. The public doesn't care who hands them their meds, as long as they can also bring them a warm blanket and a turkey sandwich. Licensed nurses are going to find it increasingly difficult to find jobs except in select areas.

0 Votes
Specializes in Oncology; medical specialty website.
I am a CMA. Let me enlighten you all on how I got my certificate!

I took my transcript to the BON, with a form that stated my name and address. I brought them a $40 money order; they mailed me the paper, no questions asked.

That was it! I took pharmacology as a requirement for nursing school. The course was intended for us to learn the names and actions of medications...Not so much about how to administer them, or when to hold them, etc.

Not just that, but my guilty conscience weighed on me. Whose job would I be stealing, if I decided to go to management and tell them I got my med tech certificate?

I say this OVER and OVER on these boards...You nurses need to do something about your professional image! EVERYONE wears scrubs, from dietary to the secretary. Even people who have never been near an OR in their life wear green scrubs. I knew a front-desk medical assistant who routinely wore OR scrubs and told guys at the bar she was a nurse...Lol.

Granted, uniforms are usually color-coded... but the public doesn't really care enough to find out what each color stands for. There's gotta be something that can be done to differentiate nurses from non-nurses... Until something is done, corporations will exploit the public's ignorance regarding who is qualified to provide care and who isn't by using "Med Techs" and other inflated job titles to protect their bottom lines.

Thoughts?

WE nurses have very little say in most areas when it comes to who wears what uniforms. If we had that kind of power, believe me, there are other more pressing issues that would have our attention first.

0 Votes
Specializes in LTC.

I'm a PCA/MED TECH while in nursing school, I know what about half of the meds do... It disturbs me... Some of the people I work with can't pronounce the meds... Sad...

0 Votes
It's the watering down of patient care being given by educated nurses, bit by bit. The public doesn't care who hands them their meds, as long as they can also bring them a warm blanket and a turkey sandwich. Licensed nurses are going to find it increasingly difficult to find jobs except in select areas.

While some of the public may not care, some do. I think that those that do often have a hard time even finding someone to voice their concerns to, let alone being heard and receiving any kind of corrective action in response. To give a personal experience: When a close family member and I observed the MA taking my family member's blood pressure incorrectly in the doctor's office, we mentioned this to the doctor. Our concern was courteously received, and the MA continued to take my family member's blood pressure just as incorrectly on following visits. We concluded it was not worth our time to pursue our concern again with the doctor, but we made sure to bring my family member's own blood pressure readings in each time to discuss with the doctor. If the doctor was tempted to make a medical decision based on the MA's reading that was not consistent with our blood pressure data, then we referred to our data. But without me, an RN, to advocate for my family member, medical decisions would have been made on the basis of incorrect readings by the MA.

I believe it is difficult for the public, without medical/nursing training, to even perceive that their quality of care is being compromised, and even if they sense or know it is happening, it is not easy to find someone to complain to who will take action on their behalf. At the large medical practice we go to there is no office of the patient advocate or patient complaints person present in the local main office that I know of. One can take a concern up with their doctor, or there is an address one can write to if one has a complaint about their medical care. There is a number to call for the practice manager who is based on another medical campus.

I also believe patients are afraid of alienating their doctors/nurses by saying anything negative about their care, and being ill and in need of medical care is not a strong position from which to complain. Without medical/nursing knowledge, and with illness/infirmity and often no-one to advocate for them, the public is in a weak position. I often think that as a patient or family member, one needs medical/nursing training, and probably legal training.

0 Votes

OCNRN63: It doesn't seem like it's a big deal, but I think it is. It's frustrating that patients can't tell you all apart from the housekeeping department. Nurses are professionals, and when companies take away what distinguishes nursing staff from non-nursing staff the lines between who gets to do what are blurred. That's when the "watering-down of care" happens.

Yes, I'm aware that nurses know the technicalities of what they're allowed to do vs. what the CMA is allowed to do. But to a patient, it's all the same; anyone in scrubs who is twirling around a stethoscope = nurse. Then if you add in the issue of non-nurses calling themselves nurses, it's no wonder the public has no idea what to think.

It's sad that nurses dedicate so much time to finish school and to gain experience in their specialties, only to be replaced by us puny dime-a-dozen UAP.

0 Votes
+ Add a Comment