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 Longterm Care.

If it were only that simple. I worked once in a facility where on my THREE halls I had 63 residents. The medication aid made a serious error with medications giving "Anna" Lanna's" medication for several days in a row which included digoxin. Anna almost died because of it.

The problem is that NO, most administration will NOT hire a nurse to relpace a med aid. Instead, I took care of 16 skilled care patients, 8 people with very serious dementia, one gentleman who had alcohol induced dementia and continuously urinated in my waste basket, a woman dying of brain cancer, another with an end stage dx of COPD and MRSA in both lungs, A man with dementia who kept attemping to sexually assult the female residents (he shared this behavior with my 51 year old alcohol induced dementia patient), and the list goes on.

I don't bend over and take it from anyone. I voiced my concerns in a professional way. Hell, I even had a few fits about it and eventually left that job. But the reality is, at least in Iowa, there is no nurse to patient ratio for longterm care. You get what you get and it is pretty much the same every where. Ocassionally, you run across a place where the owners genuinely seem to care about the resident and their well being, but those are few and far between. So you go to work and pray none of the nurses call in and that you do no harm by your actions because you are so overwhelmed with your work load. And yes, you may even pray that a med aid is there, dispite your misgivings about them, becaue you so badly need the extra help.

I have written my state legislature about this problem on two seperate occasions and not even gotten so much as a response.

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If it were only that simple. I worked once in a facility where on my THREE halls I had 63 residents. The medication aid made a serious error with medications giving "Anna" Lanna's" medication for several days in a row which included digoxin. Anna almost died because of it.

The problem is that NO, most administration will NOT hire a nurse to relpace a med aid. Instead, I took care of 16 skilled care patients, 8 people with very serious dementia, one gentleman who had alcohol induced dementia and continuously urinated in my waste basket, a woman dying of brain cancer, another with an end stage dx of COPD and MRSA in both lungs, A man with dementia who kept attemping to sexually assult the female residents (he shared this behavior with my 51 year old alcohol induced dementia patient), and the list goes on.

I don't bend over and take it from anyone. I voiced my concerns in a professional way. Hell, I even had a few fits about it and eventually left that job. But the reality is, at least in Iowa, there is no nurse to patient ratio for longterm care. You get what you get and it is pretty much the same every where. Ocassionally, you run across a place where the owners genuinely seem to care about the resident and their well being, but those are few and far between. So you go to work and pray none of the nurses call in and that you do no harm by your actions because you are so overwhelmed with your work load. And yes, you may even pray that a med aid is there, dispite your misgivings about them, becaue you so badly need the extra help.

I have written my state legislature about this problem on two seperate occasions and not even gotten so much as a response.

Have you tried the newspaper, or the TV stations? I wouldn't be surprised if they would be interested in talking to you.

Lindarn, RN, BSN, CCRN

Spokane, Washington

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Specializes in Med Surg, LTC, Home Health.
The medication aid made a serious error with medications giving "Anna" Lanna's" medication for several days in a row which included digoxin. Anna almost died because of it.

And yes, you may even pray that a med aid is there, dispite your misgivings about them, becaue you so badly need the extra help.

You actually pray for med aides when you watch them almost kill your patients? You need extra help alright, but that help should come from another nurse, period! If you are willing to trade the life of one of your residents to have less work on your hands, then it is time to quit that job (which you did). These facilities would be happy to see your spirit break and accept substandard care for your patients, since that is all the administration is willing to pay for. We cannot willingly accept risking the lives of the patients as the means for reducing nurse/pt ratios in LTC. We cannot watch people that we know are uneducated do our job, almost kill people, and still be glad they are there. The two ideas mix like oil and water.

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Specializes in telemetry, med-surg, home health, psych.
You actually pray for med aides when you watch them almost kill your patients? You need extra help alright, but that help should come from another nurse, period! If you are willing to trade the life of one of your residents to have less work on your hands, then it is time to quit that job (which you did). These facilities would be happy to see your spirit break and accept substandard care for your patients, since that is all the administration is willing to pay for. We cannot willingly accept risking the lives of the patients as the means for reducing nurse/pt ratios in LTC. We cannot watch people that we know are uneducated do our job, almost kill people, and still be glad they are there. The two ideas mix like oil and water.

I agree with this, ,,,,,, but if you have ever walked in and find that you have 45 pts. all with multiple meds and tx. and giving TID, then yes, I can fully understand the desire for help, whether it be a med aid or a nurse.

no matter what we would like to happen, it isn't going to....they are going to continue to use cheaper labor. Period.

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I agree with this, ,,,,,, but if you have ever walked in and find that you have 45 pts. all with multiple meds and tx. and giving TID, then yes, I can fully understand the desire for help, whether it be a med aid or a nurse.

no matter what we would like to happen, it isn't going to....they are going to continue to use cheaper labor. Period.

They will continue to use cheap labor because WE ALLOW THEM TO!! Nurses have been asleep at the wheel when it comes to the deprofessionalizing our profession. First it was nursing homes lobbying for a change in language for the staffing of the Long Term Care facilities. The language used to read that a REGISTERED NURSE HAD TO BE ON THE PREMISES AT ALL TIMES! This was changed to be ANY LICENSED NURSE, which opened the door for nursing homes to be allowed to staff with only one LPN on the premises, instead of an RN.

Now they are allowed to hire HS dropouts to adminster medications, under the guise that if these individuals were in their homes, non medical family members would be giving the medications. What they left out of that equation was that family members were only giving medication one, or may be two family members, not an entire wing of elderly patients.

I would not, under any circumstances, work with, and take the responsibility of medication aides. Period. Not on my watch.

Lindarn, RN, BSN, CCRN

Spokane, Washington

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We have SVQ 3's who are supposed to be competent to pass medications.I have had several complaints about ,for instance, how they give nebulisers etc.They don't know the side effects or contra indications.I can see a time when we are out of a job because they will be a cheaper option!

nightmare i agree 100%!! I was a CNA for over 13 years before becoming a nurse and i could have taken the "med aide" test but chose not to because of the safety issue. The one thing that you learn in nursing school is side effects, contraindications, and dosage calculations for medications. For instance it really bothers me that here in the state of NC that all you have to do to become a med tech is pass a math test; then boom you can pass meds! That's pretty simple when myself and countless others had to worry constanly about getting a unsat in school if i as much as forgot the five rights of a med pass. A competent caregiver cannot give meds of they do not know what perimeters are required before giving the medicine. For example, digoxin knowing that you MUST check the apical pulse before giving and what it has to be. The governing body over med techs in this state are playing a dangerous game with people's lives..i said it before i became a nurse... and i stand firm in that belief. :twocents:

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Look at what the medication aide schmuffin says and youll think it's even worse of an idea.....

What an outrage!!!:down:

That's awfull!:banghead:

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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:

I agree bradley... i did staff relief in a LTC facility where a pt suffered a severe head wound and died as a result of a fall from a hoyer pad that ripped from being dry-rotted and old. The CNA who put the pt on the pad told the nurse that the pad was torn... the nurse threatned to "write her up" if she didn't use the hoyer pad, so she used it. Point being, that facility was too cheap to buy another hoyer pad to use.... and that's a shame, that CNA should have used a little common sense to protect not only herself but that pt as well!

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Specializes in Home Health/PD.

No No No! med aides should not exist. How would they know when to admin a prn and when not to? I've met many med aides who have not known, but still passed it. I don't think it is right at all

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Lots of passion about stopping the use of CMTs, but does anyone have any suggestions other than "get a nurse"?

There are not enough nurses to fill CMT slots in LTC- not to mention the huge number of Med Level 1 techs giving meds in group homes, independent living situations, or RCFs.

What if there were more training involved?

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Specializes in Day program consultant DD/MR.
Lots of passion about stopping the use of CMTs, but does anyone have any suggestions other than "get a nurse"?

There are not enough nurses to fill CMT slots in LTC- not to mention the huge number of Med Level 1 techs giving meds in group homes, independent living situations, or RCFs.

What if there were more training involved?

Not really any other suggestions other than starting a licensed medication aide program so that they are responsible for thier own action.

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yessssssssssssssssss

i was one in maine want to be one in az but nurses dont allow it

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