nitenrz

I am currently a trainer for "Med Techs" who are used in FL Assisted Living Facilities. There should be some clarification regarding the "med tech" in Florida and those in other states like Kentucky. In Florida, after 4 hours of training a person is able to ASSIST the resident to take his medication. This means the resident must first be able to know what the medications are and the reasons for taking them. This allows the resident to be in a more independent living situation. Assisting with medication administration includes steadying someone's hand, putting the medication in a cup for the person, pouring water, juice or other liquids. It does not include crush pills or scoring them, nor does it include injections or making judgements on prn meds. If the person is confused, then they must not be assisted with medication administration, but must be administered the medication by a licensed nurse. Furthermore, the state of FL determines administration of medication as taking a medication and directly putting it into the mouth of the resident. In Kentucky for instance, a medication aide takes an extended course and is able to ADMINISTER medication. These med techs do give injections, make independent decisions and work in both nursing homes and assisted living facilities. It should be noted that Florida has opted not to follow the slack rules of other states like Kentucky. We do not have feeding assistance or medication aides.

Hello, I am sorry to hear about your deficiencies but the same holds true in NC. Maybe this can be taken as a learning experience. What the MDS Coordinator has done here was to initiate care plan rounds with the CNAs and Nurses to ensure when the person was care planned or the mds/raps was update, it correlated with the patient. I think sometimes in doing the paperwork we can get comfortable with the word of one person. It is best to make sure the nurse's notes and other interdisciplinary team members' notes verify what was put in the care plan. It is hard to fight a def. when the care plan says one thing and everyone else on the team says something else. Good luck. I feel your pain.