Re: TN Nurses Against Proposed Bill (SB 0009) for "Certified Medication Technicians"
As a CNA, I am not certain the two arguments can be equated. I grew up in a state where medication aides were used. I was one. Medication aides are useful in home care or assisted living settings. However, I cannot imagine using a medication aid in a LTC, SKilled, or even hospital setting. The orders and patients' conditions can change too rapidly for a CNA/Med Aide with 25 to 30 high acuity patients to properly do the job. 40 hours of Med training can not compare to my 5 weeks of CNA patient care training which includes some assessment skills. Additionally, 40 hours of med training definitely does not compare to my LPN training. (I won't even go there with RN training.)
In the DNP vs Physician argument, you have a doctor with 4 years of medical education versus a DNP who probably has over ten years of high specialized training in the field prior to completion of training. How many does a doctor have? I think that would be none, unless you count the last two years of their 4-year program. There was a time when MDs refused to accept ODs. I think DNPs will reach their rightful spot in healthcare too. In the meantime comparing the Nurse vs Med Tech and the DNP versus MD arguments is like comparing apples to oranges.
Respectfully, the two arguments are not the same.
Originally Posted by forpath 
Has there ever been a study that shows that there are worse patient outcomes when a CNA dispenses meds compared to when a nurse does it? And why should the nursing profession feel entitled to influence another profession and say what is and what isn't within the other profession's scope of practice? In this case, the CNA profession. It just seems so arrogant and I know it is just because of money. When a CNA dispenses meds, she is practicing nurse assistancy, but when a nurse dispenses the same meds, it is nursing. They are completely different things. And so what if nurses had more pharmacology than CNAs in school? I can think of like 4 anecdotal experiences where a CNA is a genius and the nurse under whom she worked was a total idiot. Maybe one doesn't need to go through all the years of nursing school to do what a nurse does. Maybe one can do it all with a CNA in much less time, with fewer tests and less stress.
In case you all cannot tell, I am being horribly sarcastic and irreverent. It just struck me as ironic that if one were to replace CNA and medication aid with "DNP" and nurse with "physician" in this discussion, many of you would be on the other side of the argument.
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