Should medication aides exist?

Nurses Safety

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  1. Should medication aides exist?

    • 116
      Yes
    • 347
      No
    • 39
      Not Sure

502 members have participated

Medication aides should not exist. Nurses must band together to fight against taking our skills and giving them to under-qualified persons. Sure we are overloaded with work, but they should hire more nurses to alleviate our burden. We should never accept an unsafe, undereducated "medication aide" to assist us. If they keep giving away our skills to uneducated people, soon we will be competing against them for jobs while they are willing to take half the pay. Then who do you think companies will hire?

Do you think medication aides should exist?

Specializes in telemetry, med-surg, home health, psych.
Standing in unity and refusing as you stated can make the necessary changes, especially if you do it in front of the news cameras. The mystery to me is that these nurses know good and well that they are NOT going to be able to deliver adequate pt care, and yet they put their license, and the safety of their pts on the line everyday as they clock in and accept the assignment. I have been so lucky in my career that the ratios i was working didnt result in severe harm or death to my pts. I have seen it happen to other nurses, and i bet they carry around a guilt that should be on the shoulders of the administrators instead. It is a crying shame that we just cant come together and stop these atrocities.:down:

Some of us have to continue to work no matter the conditions...we have families to feed.....I have seen (one recently) stir things up with upper management about the staffing and she is not working any longer. That is how they take care of anyone wanting to make changes. :no:

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Specializes in Med Surg, LTC, Home Health.
Some of us have to continue to work no matter the conditions...we have families to feed.....I have seen (one recently) stir things up with upper management about the staffing and she is not working any longer. That is how they take care of anyone wanting to make changes. :no:

Indeed, standing up as one will only get you into trouble. Unity is the only way. By getting rid of one voice of dissent, they silence all the rest. Keeping us oppressed is what they get paid to do, and they certainly deserve a bonus.

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But change starts with one. I had worked for a home health agency for 8 yrs w/out a raise. We, as a group, wrote letters, had meetings; no change. I pushed for 'Unless we threaten to quit, there will be no change.' There was no peer support. I did leave thanking the agency for 8 great years clearly stating the lack of raise as my reason. Eventually another left. And raises did come about. There are other nursing jobs. When lives (& your license) are on the line, it may be time to consider looking.

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Specializes in Cardiac, Critical Care, LTC.

Okay I am hope I do not get jumped on, but I was a medication aide and now I am a RN

So I would say that even though a medication aide is not licensed they are taught how to pass medications, the classifications of the drug, what the drug is for and the adverse affects of the drug to watch for. There are some great medication aides and as always some bad seeds.

i do not work in LTC but if I did, I would ask to train the medication aide of my hall myself. I do not know if this can be done at all LTC centers, but when I was a medication aide, the nurse who work the same shift and the same hall as I trained me on the med cart.

I would say the med aides are a big help to the nurses in LTC, but i guess it depends on the med aide.

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Specializes in Med Surg, LTC, Home Health.
Okay I am hope I do not get jumped on, but I was a medication aide and now I am a RN...i do not work in LTC but if I did, I would ask to train the medication aide of my hall myself.

I am a med aide, we had a 5 day class, now its down to 4 days and about a half an hour of actual hands on training on the floor before they stick you out there yourself... terrible isnt it???

I would not fault a person for being a med aide. I would warn them though that the risk of them hurting someone would be astronomically high. I dont think it would be easy to train someone that had a 4 day class to do a job that we spent years learning. It would take at least equally that long to train them. Of course they are a help to the nurse, they are doing a nurses' job! The point is, it shouldnt be an undertrained, uneducated med aide responsible for such a serious skill as giving out medications. It is not safe for the patients, nor is it safe for the longevity of our careers. It is kind of an insult to nursing to say that the hell we went through could be learned in just 4 days and by anybody! RN's are the cream of the student crop. Only the highest GPA's made it into the programs. I seriously doubt there is any prerequisite to being a med aide, except maybe to have a name. Please know that im not jumping on you or any med aide. All RN's should have some degree of motivation to protect their skills from being given away to uneducated people. If not just for the preservation of our own careers, then think, one day we will be a patient too! Id rather look up and see a qualified RN than someone who had 4 days of training and a half hour of clinicals.:wink2:

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Specializes in Cardiac, Critical Care, LTC.
I would not fault a person for being a med aide. I would warn them though that the risk of them hurting someone would be astronomically high. I dont think it would be easy to train someone that had a 4 day class to do a job that we spent years learning. It would take at least equally that long to train them. Of course they are a help to the nurse, they are doing a nurses' job! The point is, it shouldnt be an undertrained, uneducated med aide responsible for such a serious skill as giving out medications. It is not safe for the patients, nor is it safe for the longevity of our careers. It is kind of an insult to nursing to say that the hell we went through could be learned in just 4 days and by anybody! RN's are the cream of the student crop. Only the highest GPA's made it into the programs. I seriously doubt there is any prerequisite to being a med aide, except maybe a to have a name. Please know that im not jumping on you or any med aide. All RN's should have some degree of motivation to protect their skills from being given away to uneducated people. If not just for the preservation of our own careers, then think, one day we will be a patient too! Id rather look up and see a qualified RN than someone who had 4 days of training and a half hour of clinicals.:wink2:

Okay I see your point but just to provide some clarification the 4 days is how many days out of the week that the class was held not the entire course of training.

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I have never worked with a med-aide...but I don't think that it would be practical at all....I would not feel comfortable one bit....I have LPN's passing meds in my facility and it works out great !!!

Added tid-bit----how about CMT's??? I went to have an IVP done and two different "techs" at the hospital tried to put an IV in...no luck and I have great veins....Finally, I demanded that they find an RN or I would do it myself !!!! After waiting 20 min. for them to find one, she came and zipped it right in...I thought I was in a car garage getting repairs with all the

"certified medical technicians" around and NO NURSES !!!!

What is that all about????

Until and unless the "customer" complains about the amateur care they are receiving, nothing will change.

Lindarn, RN, BSN, CCRN

Spokane, Washington

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True- it is all about greed. But that is what capitalism is all about, isn't it?

So, what is the answer?

If states outlawed all med techs tomorrow- there would be no medications passed in thousands of LTC, ALF, RCF, etc. Until the system has produced enough nurses, what to do? Totally untrained staff giving meds in group homes- including tube meds.

I have seen mistakes by CMTs, LPNs, RNs, NPs, Docs... It happens. But, I have performed the LTC med passes, and would not do it full time.

Any ideas as to what the future might hold? How we could improve conditions during this "nursing shortage"?

It would force the nursing homes as ALFs to pay enough to encourage nurses to come back to work.

Lindarn, RN, BSN, CCRN

Spokane, Washington

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Specializes in Day program consultant DD/MR.

My vote no. If a med error was to occur and it was the med aid that passed the med, Who is responsible? The med aid or ultimitly the nurse? Does the med aid work under the licensed personnel or are they held responsible for thier actions?

p.s if this has been answered in this thread already please forgive me.

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Specializes in LTC, Med-Surg.

I will NEVER work with a medication "aide". I will quit first and seek employment elsewhere.

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Specializes in RN in LTC.

I worked as a med tech at a personal care home. i realized how unsafe it because I took the time to learn about the meds. I quit my job and went to nursing school.

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Specializes in Transplant/Surgical ICU.

nooooooooo...never!!!!!!!!!!!!

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