Do any of you know much about these? They keep going on and on about it in my CNA class. I guess the state of North Carolina will be listing the position on the NC Board of Nursing next year. The instructors seem to think that a lot of opportunities and job openings will be avaliable to them.
Learn the skills and information you will need to take the state Med Tech Exam.
Our Med Tech class includes instruction on:
Safe medication administration
Proper infection control
Medical Terminology
Physician orders & transcribing
Medication monitoring techniques
Methods to monitor RX effects/side effects/adverse reactions
Proper storage of medications
Proper documentation procedures
Reference/resources in Rx administration.
I'm just wondering is this is something that's being "hyped up". Or if this will be a more common job.
I also live in NC, and I do not think it is a good idea. I think the money they're planning on spending on it should be redirected towards training more nurse educators. I feel there is too much nursing judgement that is necessary in giving medications. I appreciate their efforts to speed up processes and try to lighten a nurses load, however, this is not the best way to do it.
The NC Board of Nursing also has other things that will be voted on soon that you should check out at http://www.ncbon.com If you're planning on starting nursing school, getting your CNA, anything dealing with nursing, you should be checking up on this website.
I too agree with another poster in that this is something I am not willing to delegate to someone else. I don't want someone giving a wrong med, missing an interaction or something of the sorts and it comes back on me. :uhoh21:
NicinNC- Good luck with your test. PM me and tell me where you're planning on working. For "more nursing experience" as you put it, try a hosptial. It has opened many doors for classmates. Long term care is awesome, but I think as a nursing student you'll get a lot of experience (both are great though)! -Andrea
What about the certified medical assistants?? That CMA title is going to cause alot of confusion. Or is is CMT?
I agree. There does need to be a standard since this practice is being instituted in more states. For instance, in Maine those taking the 40 hour program, which was recently increased from 24 hours, receive a CRMA, Certified Resiential Medication Aide, approved and regulated by the Department of Human Services. They can pass P.O. and topical medications in a Licensed Residential Care or Group Home setting. CNA-M's are CNA's who have taken a 120 hour course approved by the Maine BON to pass meds in long term care and state mental health care settings.
With each state having their own version of what this position is, the role becomes confusing. While I advocate using med aides, there does need to be some consensus upon training and scope of practice.
Specializes in Specializes in L/D, newborn, GYN, LTC, Dialysis.
I work right now as a certified medication aide in the state of Texas...and some of the people's comments on here about them are very offensive to me...I dont want to hear how CMA's are bad people and we don't know how to pass medications correctly, or we are going to steal them, or whatever else negative you have to say....So I'm going to stay out of it...all i know is...it doesn't take a brain surgeon to read a MAR correctly and admin. a med....its pretty simple...nurses can make medication errors...
anyways...my take on being a med aide is somewhere in one of those post....but im going to stop now before my blood starts to boil
Excuse me, but you are putting words in people's mouths; no one here said CMAs are bad people. Your reply is basically based on emotion, I get that. The fact is, the WHYS and HOWS of med adminstration safety are NOT learned in weeks in a quickie course. I have said it before; it's not about popping a pill or giving a shot. True, "anyone" can do it; it's not brain surgery, as you said. I will tell you what it's about: It's about saving a buck for the institutions that want to see this legislation passed nation-wide so they can save lots of $$$.
Yes, as you said, anyone can make an error. But if you want medications safely administered by people who understand pharmacology and pathophysiology, you hire a nurse. Not a tech. If this offends you , I am sorry. It's not personal at all. I feel STRONGLY about protecting the integrity of NURSING practice and patient safety. That is "my" emotional response.
Specializes in Specializes in L/D, newborn, GYN, LTC, Dialysis.
I also live in NC, and I do not think it is a good idea. I think the money they're planning on spending on it should be redirected towards training more nurse educators. I feel there is too much nursing judgement that is necessary in giving medications. I appreciate their efforts to speed up processes and try to lighten a nurses load, however, this is not the best way to do it.
The NC Board of Nursing also has other things that will be voted on soon that you should check out at http://www.ncbon.com If you're planning on starting nursing school, getting your CNA, anything dealing with nursing, you should be checking up on this website.
I too agree with another poster in that this is something I am not willing to delegate to someone else. I don't want someone giving a wrong med, missing an interaction or something of the sorts and it comes back on me. :uhoh21:
NicinNC- Good luck with your test. PM me and tell me where you're planning on working. For "more nursing experience" as you put it, try a hosptial. It has opened many doors for classmates. Long term care is awesome, but I think as a nursing student you'll get a lot of experience (both are great though)! -Andrea
Specializes in Specializes in L/D, newborn, GYN, LTC, Dialysis.
no one has said that med aides are "bad people", the issue is safety. Let's put it this way, when you go into the doctors office for common complaints, probably 75% of the time the RN could figure out what is wrong and know which drug needs to be used to treat the problem. This would be the case for patients with a normal presentation and hx. But what about the zebra? the person with atypical symptoms or multiple systems in stages of disease? to recognize, diagnose and treat people with abnormal presentations youwill most likely need a physician or an NP/PA. It is the same concept with medication administration. Most people can read correctly and follow directions to physically give the medication, but what about symptoms and recognizing problems that could be occuring when the patient has multiple medications? What about signs that the med is not working or is possibly causing an allergic response, etc... Now imagine knowing the risks involved with giving medications and knowing you are now responsible for another person giving meds under your license? I am not a nurse yet but, I know first hand how dangerous it can be for someone not truly qualified to take on this responsibility. It isn't about someone being a better, more honest person, it's about someone being more qualified for the job by virtue of education.
I think this post is excellent and bears repeating. Especially the final sentence. I agree 100%.
We use habaides as med techs in group home here also. And i still say its a bad idea. Its not just knowing about adverse reactions and what they are and how they affect the patient, its about knowing what to do about them, which ones are a true emergency or have the symptoms of becoming an emergency and which ones can be monitored or treated with "another pill".
Habaides also are allowed to pass pain medications such as darvocet, ibuprophen but do they know the residents medical history and symptoms of certain problems that would contradict giving pain medication? Do they realize that if given pain medications for certain things it masks symptoms of other problems that may be overlooked due to the medication being given prior to seeing a doctor?
In my state if you work as a habaide and can pass their 8th grade competancy in math and english you in their eyes can take the week long training and begin passing medications. And still make your 6.25 an hour.
i learned more in my medication aide class that i took for 6 months...then I learned in my pharm class at nursing school that was only 3 months long...two days a week for 2 hours a day...
in the medication aide class we learned about the side effects of medications...superinfections, toxicities, take pulses before dig, BP's before blood pressure pills...etc...however we are not "trained" as you say to look for side effects to the meds and thats okay...the nurses do that...and working in LTC its easy to see changes between a patient that you see each day....all of the residents in our nursing home have been on the same medication for months with no adverse reactions..and anybody that is on a new drug, the initial dose has to be given by the nurse and charted on for seen adverse reactions.
we dont give PRN's without the nurse first assessing the patient and seeing if the "pain" is really just pain, or if it is "masking another problem"
Assissted livings get one day of training and then they can pass...oh im sorry Assist giving meds out at a assissted living facility...just one day of training...
for the people that never really had a chance to work with a medication aide, I wish you wouldn't be so quick to judge on it, it's not as bad as it sounds, and if you think thats me sounding naive, then so be it.
Specializes in Specializes in L/D, newborn, GYN, LTC, Dialysis.
The point is, nurses do the underlying assessments that include appropriate medication administration. We do not need or want (some of anyhow) med aides giving meds under our licensure. It would not ease my burden to have anyone who is unlicensed to give medications for me. It's something I want only licensed people to do, period. The BON does NOT relieve nurses of the liability and responsibility of errors or complications that arise from medication administration. If a med aide goes 'down" I guarantee you, the nurse will, as well. Leave it to nurses and nursing to give meds, period. It's just a measure to save money, not help anyone, including the aides, nurses or patients in our care.
Thank goodness I don't live in North Carolina. If this came up where I work, I'd refuse to let the med aide do it. Seeing as they are unlicensed, they'd be working under my license and supervision. Someone licensed is ultimately responsible for that patient. I'm sorry, but something as important and vital as giving medications-I don't want to risk my license by letting someone else do that. It's not worth it to me.
If the issue is easing the nurse in LTC's burden....why don't htey take that money to train/pay med aides and hire another nurse?
And you know, MAYBE med aides know about the drugs, maybe they know about the side effects, etc (i say maybe b/c i have never been to a med aide class) but do they know about the patho of the disease the person is getting the med for? How much do they know about parkinson's, alzheimers, diabetes? etc.
I'm not saying that a med aide isn't smart enough, they just dont' have the right education to do a nursing task like that. Just like I don't have the education to do NP work, or MD work.
Specializes in Gerontological, cardiac, med-surg, peds.
Yesterday, the NC Board of Nursing reversed themselves on the issue of medication aides and voted to oppose it.
Not so coincidentally, the Health Care committee of the House voted to table the discussion of H 783. It was taken off the calendar for action in the legislature.
Yesterday, the NC Board of Nursing reversed themselves on the issue of medication aides and voted to oppose it.
Not so coincidentally, the Health Care committee of the House voted to table the discussion of H 783. It was taken off the calendar for action in the legislature.
Honestly, I just graduated saturday (:balloons: Woohoo BSN!!:balloons: ) anyway now that my little party is over... :chuckle haha... I haven't had much experience in the hospital setting besides clinical but this medication aide seems more trouble than it is worth. If the aide is giving the med, and we are supposed to follow up on the side effects and assess and so on.. doesn't it just make more sense for us to give them med? How much time and money is this really saving? Would patient loads go up because less nurses would be hired because they would hire more CMT or CMA or whatever they are called. If this were to be a national thing, I think it would change the scope of the nursing practice dramatically, beacuse I for one, wouldn't let a person deliever a med under my liscense if I wasn't there.. and if I am going to be there I might as well give it! :chuckle I don't feel this way because you are uncapable, but I feel I worked hard for my RN and if anyone is going ot make a mistake (hey I am just as able as anyone else (well some people) ) and make me lose my RN then I am going to be the person to do that...not someone who went to school for 6 months to borrow my RN...I don't mean to be rude but honeslty this is how i feel
Aneroo, LPN
1,518 Posts
I also live in NC, and I do not think it is a good idea. I think the money they're planning on spending on it should be redirected towards training more nurse educators. I feel there is too much nursing judgement that is necessary in giving medications. I appreciate their efforts to speed up processes and try to lighten a nurses load, however, this is not the best way to do it.
The NC Board of Nursing also has other things that will be voted on soon that you should check out at http://www.ncbon.com If you're planning on starting nursing school, getting your CNA, anything dealing with nursing, you should be checking up on this website.
I too agree with another poster in that this is something I am not willing to delegate to someone else. I don't want someone giving a wrong med, missing an interaction or something of the sorts and it comes back on me. :uhoh21:
NicinNC- Good luck with your test. PM me and tell me where you're planning on working. For "more nursing experience" as you put it, try a hosptial. It has opened many doors for classmates. Long term care is awesome, but I think as a nursing student you'll get a lot of experience (both are great though)! -Andrea