Med Aides?

CoffeemateCNA · Jun 13, 2010

Many of the places that offer CNA courses also offer med aide/tech courses. There are two different levels: the lower one requires no experience and consists of 1-2 days of training; the higher one requires CNA experience and has several months of classroom time as well as clinicals. In the shorter class, they are only teaching you to pass the pills. In the longer one, they try to teach you a little bit about the meds you are passing and you learn some other skills like taking telephone orders from physicians and transcribing it on the MAR (medication administration record) per facility policy, etc. Usually, but not always, the the longer class is required to work in a skilled facility. The shorter one is for group homes or assisted living. This all varies by state.

I did it, and I did it for the same reason 90% of other people do it -- I wanted to get off of the floor, away from the coworker crap, and give my back a rest.

It looked so easy, just standing at a cart all day.

WRONG!! It's extremely stressful. It can also be very confusing if the cart is set up weird. You have to chase everyone around, begging them to take their meds. Then some refuse and it sets you back. (AAGGGHHHH!) Then again, I'm a newer med aide, so I don't have years of experience to fall back on. :)

Once I was on the cart, I realized how much I missed my residents. So now the cart is just a casual thing.

If I wasn't going to nursing school, and CNA was going to be my career, I would opt for the med aide position to prevent (further) future back problems. But, since I'm in school, I'm pretty happy working the floor with the casual experience on the cart. It gives me good practice for when I'm out on my own in the real world as a nurse (scary, huh? ).

Sally Lou · Jun 14, 2010

I did the class at my current job, a private residential school for children who have handicaps or behavioral problems. It was kinda a combo of the short/long that coffeemate described above.

It will do me absolutley no good though once i'm done with the ARC class in July. In MA it's illegal for CNA's to pass med's (unless you are the CNA-RP, CNA responsible person: usually in a nursing home).

Dorali, BSN, LPN, RN · Jun 15, 2010

Here in Oklahoma, you have to be a CNA for 6 months and take a med aide class--which is about 96 hours, I think. It's higher pay by almost $4/hour where I work. The class costs about $250.

I'm thinking about taking it to get some experience with meds before nursing school.