CNA has question about Assisted Living

[moomoo111]

Hi, I'm a Resident Assistant at an assisted living facility. I am a CNA student. On the subject of Med Techs, I'm told by my nursing instructor teaching the CNA class that a Nurse is the only one that can take doctor's orders for a resident to be given meds. Tonight at work, a woman called and said that she was a Nurse with a Cardiology Medical Office and needed to know what mg. of Coumadin we were giving a resident. Since I'm not the Med Tech and was advised that no-one could take orders, I assumed that she needed our RN, we only have one, to call her and talk to her. She also wanted to know what her coumadin levels were with her recent blood test. With HIPPA and me not knowing who she was, I told her that I could not help her and that I would page the nurse and have her call her. Then I get a phone call from our nurse who says she's several states away and that the Med Tech will have to handle it and page the nurse that is on call with our facility and have her give her the information. First, the Med Tech is not trained from a school and has only about 4 hours of training, has no idea what the blood test is for the coumadin, does not even know what coumadin is, and she says that she will take the order and give the resident whatever! Now I'm told in class that for an assisted living facility to give out meds, they have to have an RN in house or on call and within so many minutes from the facility. I've seen too many neglected other things in this place like residents thar are so demented and not being fed, people are falling every day and getting serious injuries, there has to be someone that I can contact and let them know these things are going on, but before I do, how can I find out what the laws are to protect these innocent residents? I can't tell you how many falls I've seen in this place, how many CHF residents walking around with wheezing and swollen legs so bad that they look like they are going to bust. How can I find out where to get this information so I can tell somebody before I blow my nursing career to smithereens by not reporting how awful this place is? I'm not going to say anymore, I can't give out anymore information. I know that they can't do a thing to me if I report these things, but if I go to the Director of this place and tell her that I've seen these things and nothing is done about it, doesn't she know that I have to report these things? I honestly don't think she knows this is going on, this is a night shift and there are literally inexperienced people working in this place and this thing with the meds is awful. I've seen people chase her down the hall wanting their meds, and I've seen many pills laying around on the floor where they are spitting them out and I give them to her and she just throws them in the trash. How do I find out who mandates assisted living facilities in my state. MM