Nursing Issue - Medication Aides

jnette, ASN, EMT-I · Feb 25, 2005

My goodness.. we are spiraling ever faster downward toward the abyss. :uhoh21:

dekatn · Feb 26, 2005

I try not to let things upset me very much, but, when I think about the months of studying that I did in pharmacology and the oh so many days that I came home from class and cried because I just knew I would never learn everything I needed to know to give meds, and then, I read something like this. 24 hours training!!!!! I just get down right mad. Sorry for the rant, but it just sounds down right dangerous to me. Most of us still keep a drug book handy because with sicker pt. and newer meds there is always something to learn. Or is it that people in "non-healthcare facilities don't deserve the same quality of care". If I had a child in school that was on medication, I would want someone overseeing that child that had more than 24 hr. "training".

Paula S · Feb 26, 2005

In Colorado, we have been fighting the proposal of medications aides in longterm care for 4 years. We have testified several times at committee hearings. Nurses everywhere are very concerned about this - due to vulnerability of nursing home patients, fragile medical condition, and complexity of medication administration. But legislators seem to see it as a nice fix. We are encouraging nursing homes to spend any monies on helping their good nurse aides go to school to get LPN - a value to themselves, to NH and to the community.

There are no studies that we can find - period. Whether it is safe or not. And states that do allow med aides have different requirements, so it is hard to compare. this year, at least the proponents have suggested a pretty significant training - a semester of LPN school. We'll see.

This is one issue that ALL nurses are very concerned about - consistently. It is NOT a defending the turf issue - it is real nursing concern.

LPN1974, LPN · Feb 26, 2005

I live in Arkansas, and the same thing is going to be presented to the legislature here very soon, also. They have a bill they want passed to allow med aides. I am very upset about this.

I went thru LPN school and worked hard for a year to get thru it, and now they're going to let some do the same thing with minimal hours of training. I am MAD.

Why do they not devote this time, and money they're putting in to this bill towards helping young people go to LPN or RN school???

I'm not sure how it all would work, but it looks like if someone were going to have to pay money towards med tech training, they could take that money along with a government grant and go to LPN school, get thru that, and then they would be able to go on to RN school later.

A year is not all that long to go thru LPN training and the nursing shortage is not going to be all that much worse a year from now. And in a year we could have real nurses working.

I intend to write to my representatives and protest this bill.

Private Peds Nurse, LPN · Feb 26, 2005

Scary is not the word that I was thinking!!!!!! Thats kind of like getting a learners permit, then being turned loose with a car the next day!!!!

And my question is this, if we make a medications error, any nurse knows what happens....what if they make a medication error???? I know of one nurse that made a medication error that the patient actually died, what if one of these "medication aides" make that kind of error?????

Hi. I am new to the post. Very shortly a bill will be presented to our legislation on Medication Aides for my state. I am looking for some feedback regarding these aides. I know other programs have been implemented in many other states. How is it working? What are the current problems? Where can I go to find out more information?
In my state they will be mandatory in non-health focused care settings such as: schools, prison, assisted living, daycares, and group homes. The health focused areas are: long term care facilities, rehab centers, home health, hospice, public health depts., clinics, and acute care settings. However, some say it optional for health care facilities. The training is 24 hours. I feel this is very dangerous. It is being implemented to help alleviate some of the nursing shortage we will experience in the near future. Plus, a lot of these med aides already work in some of these facilities and there has never been any formal training. How they were hired is beyond me, but now there is a need to train these individuals. The only requirement to date is: 21 years old and a high school graduate. No prior medical experience. Scary!!!
I am looking for information on how programs of this type are working in other areas? Any problems experienced with the program? Is there an increase in med errors? Where I can go to gather more information?

Marie_LPN, RN, LPN, RN · Feb 26, 2005

I will never work with a medication aide. They screw something up, and if i'm the one in charge, then i'm the fall guy. I don't THINK so!

SmilingBluEyes · Feb 26, 2005

I know I am gonna take heat for this; they have NO place giving meds to ANYONE in the hospital or out. If you want to pass meds, you hire a NURSE, not an aide.

lovingtheunloved, ASN, RN · Feb 26, 2005

Whoa, Nellie. That'd be like handing ME a med cart and saying, "Here, you don't know beans about 99.9% of the meds you've got in this pretty cart, and if you kill somebody, don't worry because the RN you're working under will lose HER license, so you have fun now!" HELL no!

curleysue · Feb 26, 2005

Hey it looks like the majority of y'all hate the thought of med aides. I guess they are legal in OR cause I have worked as one at an assisted living facility. It was scary though a lot of the med aides had no previous medication or nursing educaiton. Me, I was a CNA and was on my spring break of nursing school and had one year left of my BSN. I was the ONLY med aid with any background in pharmacology and nursing. We all worked under a RN who was only at our facility once a week. Lets just say I only worked there for 4 months cause it was scary. Lots of med aides were getting fired cause they made major mistakes on the MAR sheets and many patients had either recieved the wrong dosage or the wrong meds. I never had any mistakes but it took me only a few weeks to figure out that this was really a bad thing, having unsupervised med aides with no background. They were not trained in looking up meds in the med books or even the simple tasks of the 5 R's.

I agree with all of you, med aides are a bad thing. They should have some form of prior education in pharmacology and nursing. It is indeed a scary thought, having one of your relatives in the care of an unsupervised non-educated person. They also did no criminal background checks. Thats really scary!

Take care. Curleysue :confused: :nono:

GingerSue · Feb 26, 2005

I was just reading today an article (through Google) titled "Drug Reactions harm, even kill, elderly: Study" in which the author wants improvements from doctors and nurses, in terms of knowing about the side effects of medications, then prescribing and administering appropriately. If it's a problem for doctors and nurses, who already have pharmacology education, how can untrained people be any improvement?

People must have pharmacology education if they are going to administer medications.

happthearts · Feb 26, 2005

People must have pharmacology education if they are going to administer medications.

This is so true we have med aides in our state and the pharmacy sets up all the meds in pre-packaged bubbles. But what if the Pt has a new drug or drug reaction That med aide will have no clue what to do ,if they do not have an RN or LVN on shift. I was told they just call 911 .Here in Utah they are not required to have a licensed on duty in assited livings at all.