MA-C

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.