Medication Aide

[ohiocleveland]

There is currently five states that have a "Medication Aide" training course for STNA's to be able to pass medication to pt. This is a 120 hour program according to the Ohio board of nursing. I wanted to here the pro's and con's of working with a medication aide. As an RN would you allow an STNA to admister medications under your license?

[OCNRN63, RN]

As a certified medication aide in Ohio, I wanted to clear up a few misconceptions I'm finding here. Yes, we do take a 120 hour course to be certified - that equates to roughly the amount of time a nurse would spend taking pharmacology. Nurses have a wealth of education and knowledge of nursing, and we are by no means trying to replace that, but it upsets me to see that people fear for patient's safety because we "don't know what we are doing". Statistically, the med error rate drops by almost 20% in facilities that have medication aides. Why? Because all we do are pass meds. We are not a replacement for the nurse who evaluates, plans and manages the patient's care, we are simply the extra set of hands to do med passes. And, if that nurse is doing her job well, the patient actually gets better care because the nurse has time to plan, evaluate, and monitor the patient instead of push a med cart around half the day. I'm sure no one feels that STNAs threaten patient safety, and I would be willing to bet most nurses are very thankful they don't have to perform most of the STNAs jobs. Medication aides are just the same. We are here to support and help the nursing staff give the best care possible.

Sorry, I wouldn't want a med aide for two major reasons:

1. What a med aide does reflects on my license. If you screw up, I'm the one with the license to lose, not you. I worked hard to get that license. I'm not going to let a med aide potentially take it away from me.

2. Delegating med administration to med aides is just one more way for administrators to "dumb-down" nursing skills. "Oh, it's just passing pills." It's much more than that. Nurses assess their patients while they are giving meds. Med aides don't assess and evaluate patients. What next are they going to consider something that can be turfed to an "aide?" This is one more step toward the dumbing-down of our profession. We, licensed nurses, need to fight this. If someone wants to pass medications and look like a nurse, then go to nursing school and learn how to do it right. Med aides may be well intentioned, but they simply don't have the education of a nurse.

[CelesteR903]

Sorry, I wouldn't want a med aide for two major reasons:

1. What a med aide does reflects on my license. If you screw up, I'm the one with the license to lose, not you. I worked hard to get that license. I'm not going to let a med aide potentially take it away from me.

2. Delegating med administration to med aides is just one more way for administrators to "dumb-down" nursing skills. "Oh, it's just passing pills." It's much more than that. Nurses assess their patients while they are giving meds. Med aides don't assess and evaluate patients. What next are they going to consider something that can be turfed to an "aide?" This is one more step toward the dumbing-down of our profession. We, licensed nurses, need to fight this. If someone wants to pass medications and look like a nurse, then go to nursing school and learn how to do it right. Med aides may be well intentioned, but they simply don't have the education of a nurse.

Medication aides in Texas are certified so they do stand to lose their certification too. You are taught all the side effects and what to watch out for. You are also taught to assess the patient before giving meds. You are not taught to just "pass a pill". You are taught what to check before hand and after.