If I hate being a med tech, will I hate being a nurse?

[iheartsephora1]

I am a new CNA ( certified only a month ago.) I obtained my first job a week after I passed my exam. It is in a secured dementia neighborhood ( special care unit) in a very nice assisted living facility. I absolutely love it. I had learned all of the residents by my second day, and I love them like they are my own family. They love me as well, and I've noticed some of them even tend to remember me from day to day!! It's the best feeling, and I've never been so fulfilled with a job. I am about to start my application process to different nursing programs, and want to work with the dementia/geriatric population.

The facility I work for is beautiful and expensive, but also just had all of it's starts revoked with 149 pages of corrective action for hundreds of violations. Most of these violations were the errors of " med techs." They fired some of them, but the other half of the poor employees still work there. They brought in a nurse consultant ( the facility only employs one R.N who doesn't do patient care) and he is trying to straighten the place out before the next state survey. The units don't have a nurse supervisor..in their words " the med tech IS the nurse." All of the new employees they hired, they've given the one day med tech class and then had the nurse check us off, and then put us on a cart. We were supposed to have someone shadowing us for several shifts, but the person shadowing me just left me alone the entire shift, both times. They then told me that they didn't have enough staff to continue my shadowing experience and that I would be on the floor alone next time.

I had voiced my concerns that I felt that my training wasn't adequate, and that I felt very insecure about being on the cart at this point. Still, I was put on the cart last night alone. I did everything right, with the exception of forgetting to give one resident their medications. This particular resident has to have her pills crushed, put into chocolate ensure, heated and topped with whipped cream so she thinks it is a hot chocolate. She won't touch it any other way. 99 percent of the time, she never drinks it and they just mark it as a refusal. I had done what I had been told to do, and saved the most time consuming part of the med pass for last, but then I switched carts and halls, and then forgot to give her the meds. The Nurse consultant made me fill out a medication error form, notify the doctor, family etc...the whole procedure. I felt awful and like a failure, and just felt sick to my stomach during the whole process.

There is a lot of med tech drama there and they have some kind of shift wars going on. The 1st hates the 2nd, the 2nd hates the 3rd and then they hate the 1st. It's petty and juvenile and pretty ridiculous in such a serious position. They had told us ( the new people) that they were going to replace the current med techs with us after we were checked off. Yet, they used the poor techs to train us, and then I ended up with below par training. I honestly just don't want to do it anymore, and I want to go back to being just a CNA. I loved being personal and doing activities with the residents. I dreaded the whole shift being a perpetual med pass, I feared the time limits or an overlooked error even though I was extremely careful. I dreaded trying to make out sloppy hand written orders in the paper MARS. I did it less than a week...and I hated it that badly. These med techs don't know that depakote isn't a controlled substance..and they have zero medical knowledge. They don't understand the rationale behind anything they're doing. I'm not comfortable with my lack of knowledge at this point in my education and just not comfortable with the relaxed credentialing process of a med tech to be supervising everyone, doing dressing changes etc...

My ultimate question is..if I hate passing meds..will I hate being a nurse? I know there are many, many areas of nursing to choose from, but I just want to make sure I'm not getting myself into something I will hate and do poorly with.

[lindarn]

What a disgrace that the PTB (bean counters), are happy to put our most vulnerable citizens at risk, to save more money for CEO salaries, and frills, that have NOTHING TO DO WITH POSITIVE PATIENT OUTCOMES.

Lindarn, RN, BSN, CCRN,(ret)

Somewhere in the PACNW

[quiltynurse56, LPN, LVN]

Can you sit down and talk with the nurse consultant about your concerns. Maybe he can develop a better way to achieve the goals if he understands the concerns you have.

Yes, that first med error is devastating. Been there done that.

On the other hand, I worked in a LTC center as a CNA and hated it. I did my precepting there and loved the nursing part of it. I do have an issue of having a med tech in charge instead of a nurse, they just don't have the training. I also had all the shift bashing going on and all the drama. When I earned my nursing license, I was thankful that this facility did not have an opening for a nurse at the time. I resigned my CNA position and went looking for another place to work. The place I work at now, is an awesome place. Is there some of the shift bashing among the aids? Yes, but not nearly so much as the first place. I have come to love my job, my coworkers and my residents. Something that I was not really able to do at the first place.

No, was the question of will you hate being a nurse? Probably not and that is because you will have your training to go with you. Something you don't have now. You will understand the disease process and what to do, what to ask the doctors for if you need to do so, no matter where you work.

[ponymom]

That place is a dump. Don't matter how pretty it is. Get out, and call the BON and the local news station on your way out of the parking lot. Don't look back.

[iheartsephora1]

Thank you so much, this made me feel SO much better!!! I really appreciate you taking the time to type that out

[CBlover, BSN, RN]

Honestly, the idea of med techs has always blown my mind. Here we as RNs have to receive years of training to pass a pill, but the med techs can do the same with a mere certification! It's no surpise they're constantly making mistakes. It's like they're literally passing medications with as much knowledge as if they had a blindfold over their eyes and went around passing medications so. I can certainly understand your frustration. I'm not at all trying to demean. I can just see how difficult it would be to feel confident about what you're doing.

[missycrowell]

I Am a med tech, and I really shake my head a lot at the stuff that goes on... We had to take a three week class and a week of "clinical" then pass state boards. And we are registered with the board of nursing.

It's honestly scary the stuff were in charge of doing with no real training. I don't think it should be legal to have med techs. But it's all about the dollar....

[IowaKaren]

The point is, in Assisted Living you do not need to be a CNA or CMA or have worked in healthcare before. You can come in off the street, get that bit of under training and call it good, your ready to go. Then you are the be everything to everyone and if you can't hack it, well then the cycle starts over. Assisted living is still kind of 'out of the radar' by the government at this point but give the government time, it will be looked at eventually. In my state, the facilities are surveyed every two years by one person, in my experience for smaller AL's anyway. Was interesting (scary actually) when trying to train someone to take a manual BP that had never had a stethescope in their ears, much less doing the BP properly. They depend on the auto cuff BP machines. And then to teach about diabetes, injections, etc. within a partial day and get your own work done,... yes, it is scary.

[strawberryluv, BSN, RN]

I think if you're a med tech, you basically have one function of a long-term care nurse down. However, you still need to know how to assess a patient, interpret labs, complete paperwork, do admission, and wound treatments. There is a lot more to a long-term care nurse than the med pass.

[NurseQT]

Here's my thoughts.... That was NOT YOUR med error! You aren't a licensed nurse, you don't even have a certification to pass meds. You are working under the license of the RN. That nurse assumes the responsility and risks when a non licensed person is passing medications under their license. Shame on the nurse consultant for not realizing that! You should not have been the one contacting family, doctor, nothing.

This facility is trying to save money by cutting corners and hiring CNAs and expecting them to work in the role of the nurse. And it's those very CNAs that are being put in a really crappy position and then thrown under the bus when something goes wrong.

Unlicensed and untrained staff passing medications unsupervised is scary. I speak from experience, when I was a CNA I worked at an ALF and had to pass meds. I went through a 4 hour "certification" course and was allowed to pass meds, including narcotics! I didn't know anything but didn't fully realize that until I got into nursing school! I didn't know anything about possible interactions, adverse reactions, ect ect... There's a reason why my instructors expected us to have a note card with all appropriate info for each medication our assigned patient would be receiving from us!

My suggestion to you is: RUN!!! There are far better facilities to work in as a CNA, some will even select a handful of CNAs to put them through an actual med tech certification course. Don't stay somewhere that's going to make you a scapegoat.

[vintagemother, BSN, CNA, LVN, RN]

My first job as a new grad LVN was as a med nurse. All of us new hires replaced the experienced med techs.

As far as my personal experience, working as a med tech in an ALF was nothing like working as an LVN in an LTC non medical facility.

One of the biggest differences was that in the ALF, my supervisor was not a nurse and knew very little about nursing regs. In the other facility, my supervisor was an RN. We spoke the Same language.

So, in my experience, working as a med tech was quite dissimilar than working as an LVN.

[iheartsephora1]

I didn't realize this thread had received more comments, and I thank everyone for their input!! It was very helpful and made me feel much better. I actually did leave and just started work at a skilled nursing facility today. One where there are plenty of nurses for support and teaching and so many learning opportunities. Oh yeah, it's in compliance..too. LOL I look forward to becoming a nurse