Care-aids doing meds

[OgopogoLPN, LPN, RN]

I'm in BC Canada and we have RCA (registered care-aids), which I believe are somewhat equivilant to CNA's).

I'm a 1st semester LPN student on a practicum at a home for brain injured adults. There are no regular nurses on staff, except the director of care, who is an experienced LPN and has been at this home for 15 years or so. The regular care staff are care-aids and a therapist assistant.

I was shocked to see that the care-aids do all the med passes, initial the MAR, etc. I asked one of them of they get training on doing meds from the director, LPN and she said no, they are just trained from whichever care-aid is on.

I guess the system is working for them otherwise they would have had to hire a nurse by now, but is seems disconcerting.

Just the little bit of pharm we've done so far in school hammers in all the points of the now 9 rights of medication, knowing what they're all for, adverse reactions, etc.

I don't have any grounds to question this, but I'm wondering if this is a common occurence in other settings...

[megananne7]

In the U.S., an unlicensed person who has not recieved medication administration training cannot pass meds legally. This includes if a nurse pulls the med and hands it to the CNA or whomever and asks them to stand there and watch the patient take the med.

However, at least in Maryland, there are Med Techs which recieve I think... 16? hours of med admin. training. They take a test and get a certificate allowing them to pass meds. They are usually only used in nursing homes and assisted living.

But they arent used in Delaware as far as I know.

[RNMom2010]

We were just discussing this in the Pre-Nursing forum! And I have been VENTING about it because we have to pass meds as CNA's/Caregivers (noncertified) at the facility I work at.

The class we had to take was 12hrs, and was called Medication Management Certification.

[happydays352]

In the U.S., an unlicensed person who has not recieved medication administration training cannot pass meds legally. This includes if a nurse pulls the med and hands it to the CNA or whomever and asks them to stand there and watch the patient take the med.

However, at least in Maryland, there are Med Techs which recieve I think... 16? hours of med admin. training. They take a test and get a certificate allowing them to pass meds. They are usually only used in nursing homes and assisted living.

But they arent used in Delaware as far as I know.

In Oregon Med aids receive no training and can pass meds including narcs. We go through a background check that's it. Scary stuff huh?

[RNMom2010]

What's scary about it, even with certification, is that we have a couple Aides that have had previous narc addictions, and have gone through treatment, and are still allowed to pass them. Us CNA's are about 95% sure we KNOW who is taking the narcs at our facility, but since the person who is doing it is their "Golden Child", they will not believe us. The favorites can get away with anything!! Can we say corrupted system??

[Blackcat99]

In Oregon Med aids receive no training and can pass meds including narcs. We go through a background check that's it. Scary stuff huh?

At the assisted living facilities here in Washington state, it is about the same except they don't even do background checks on these people!!!! :angryfireThe med carts are a disaster and there are constant medication errors.

[barefootlady, ADN, RN]

Heard from a friend yesterday the med-aide program will be starting soon in Ohio, sometime in 2008.

I am sure there are many aides who do their job well, but passing meds is not something they should do.

[pagandeva2000, LPN]

This always causes an uproar with nurses. I used to be a certified medication aide, but they took the skill away when there were too many errors to count. Now that I am an LPN, I would not feel entirely comfortable with someone else that is not licensed administering these drugs and I am held liable for this. You never know what can happen, and if they are not actually as accountable as we are, the medication aide has no fear of repercussions.

[TheCommuter, BSN, RN]

In the U.S., an unlicensed person who has not recieved medication administration training cannot pass meds legally.

Medication administration by unlicensed persons without training is legal in certain settings. For example, I worked as a direct care staff member at a group home for the mentally retarded back in 2000 and 2001. I had absolutely no training in med administration or pharmacology, but I passed meds to 6 developmentally disabled consumers who lived at the group home on a daily basis. This was in Southern California.