Can Aides Pass Meds?

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Specializes in LTC.

I have a friend who works for an LTC facility that is training aides to pass meds. They are not allowed to do narcs, fingers sticks, or shots. What is everyone's take on this? Is it even legal? :confused:

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Specializes in FNP.

I am sure it is dependent upon the state. Where I live medication aides can pass meds as long as they are med certified. Is it a safe practice? No, but it is a lot less expensive to hire an aide than a nurse.

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Unfortunately, in some states med aides can pass meds.

However I disagree with this and don't think it is safe practice.

steph

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It's legal where I live.

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Specializes in LTC.
Unfortunately, in some states med aides can pass meds.

However I disagree with this and don't think it is safe practice.

steph

Where I live if you get certified through the board of nursing... than yes you can pass meds. I'm currently a CNA and my job requires me to administer medications. I'm am certified by the board of nursing to do so, and I also have a delegating RN. However when I did not have this certification, I would NEVER pass meds or do fingersticks. Nurses used to ask me to do fingersticks at the hospital and I REFUSED. I told them "I wonder what the board or nursing would say about this delagation" and they got the point. Bottom line is that no one should be passing meds unless they are a licensed nurse or received certification via board of nursing. I had to take a course as well to get certified. Medication aids can pass meds. What else would they do ?

With that said, I think it is unsafe for non-nurses to pass meds, especially if its at a LTC facility. I don't work in LTC, and I only adminster 4 daily meds and PRN meds as well. But the other poster got it right, its much cheaper to have an aid passing meds, than hiring extra nurses. It all comes down to the nursing shortage.

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I work in LTC and we have certified med aides occasionally that do our med runs for us. They are already CNAs or GNAs (and have been for at least a year) and go through a special college program that teaches them to administer meds. Ours don't do finger sticks, shots, PEG tubes or anything like that and are not supposed to do narcs. Do I feel it's unsafe? Sure, it is. But I agree with what ac123 said about how it's cheaper to hire a med aide than another nurse. Personally speaking, where I work, the med runs are painfully long (well over the acceptable guidelines for what's legal) and we nurses never have enough time in the shift to get what we need to get done, let alone any extra things that may come up. Some days, it's nice to have a med aide that'll take care of the meds so that you're not having to stay over 4 or 5 hours to complete your work that should have been done. This all goes back to the nursing shortage and trying to make nurses do more for less. I won't get on that rant, though. Bottom line is, I don't think it's safe to have med aides but I don't think it's safe to have overworked nurses either.

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Specializes in Critical Care, and Management.

I think anyone can be trained to pass meds, but do we as RNs really want to? The task can be shown to anyone, but what about the reasons for giving meds, side effects etc. That is a little scary. If we as RNs keep giving our jobs away, they won't need us anymore.

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Specializes in LTC.

It takes me many hours at times to pass meds so I think it's great to have the help, but it's risky business. Some of our aides are sharp, but some are not and I worry a little about safety. :heartbeat

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Specializes in L&D.

I think it has a lot less to do with a nursing shortage, and a lot more to do with facilities looking to make more profit by hiring someone else to do the job for less than half the cost.

Is it safe? I tend to think no.

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It would be a good idea to get on your states BON website and do the research. In CA, it's never in the CNA scope of practice to pass meds.

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I agree that legal or not, i would not be a nurse in a facility that allows this..it all comes down to my license..and its dangerous..It took me 2 years of hard work to be qualified to pass meds..its not some quickie course..dangerous..but for fingersticks..as in fingersticks for blood sugars?? why not?? as a student nurse (graduating May 09) I work at a hospital and we do fingersticks ...its quick and simple and we "dock" our glucose machine so it uploads onto patient file online...

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Specializes in Home Infusion/IV Therapy & Blood Svcs..

I disagree with this practice as well. I was a CNA for quite some time before I went to nursing school & as a CNA, I was required to do finger sticks as well as simple wound care. Also, I did lab draws (including blood cultures). It scared me, even back then, to have some of the CNA's I worked with do ANYTHING with a patient, especially since the knowledge base (& most of the time, the interest) was not there. Personally, I wanted to become a nurse eventually, so I tried to take every opportunity possible to learn whatever I could, but not all CNA's feel that way...unfortunately to some, it's "just a job". I think having them pass meds is a disaster (& possibly a lawsuit) waiting to happen. I mean, isn't that kind-of the reason they need nurses? Our knowledge base cannot be substituted just because these facilities want to save money. It is unacceptable to compromise patient care/safety for ANY reason. Too bad this is not the standard opinion. I have worked with some dynamite CNAs (& some really crappy ones as well). If I were to be a patient with no medical knowledge, I certainly would not want to have someone handing me medication with no knowledge of how those meds are affecting me or why I'm taking them. They aren't M&Ms! While this practice may be more & more the norm these days, it scares me that it's considered so acceptable. Boards of nursing in every state should re-evaluate this...I'd bet it would cut down on the number of medication errors that nurses spend so much of our time trying to prevent! I'm not downplaying the importance of CNAs - I know that some of them are fantastic & make our jobs easier. I just know from what I've seen here, the interest in the true meaning of the position is not usually there. I guess this will be debated forever...(Sorry about the "soapbox" - I get really upset about this topic...)

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