UAPs administering meds

Nurses Safety

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:cool: Please help! The Facility where I work is going to initiate UAPs administering meds. I want to know if a nurse can refuse to be responsible for this. The facility is calling them Med Techs but my understanding is that Med Techs go to school to learn about meds and the administration of meds. UAPs on the other hand do not. Am I being too conservative to go along with this practice? This situation has caused a turmoil at work.

Thanks for any advice.

Melinda Sue

Thanks to everyone for your replies! You all have been very helpful and I certainly appreciate your advice.

I have been on a quest for the last 2 wks. gathering info. re: UAPs giving meds. I do not wish to be responsible for this new policy.

The nurses at our facility were never spoken to about this plan. One night at work, one of our nurses shows up at work and finds out she'll have a so-called Med Tech carrying Narc. keys and being responsible for a whole unit! She called the DON, who was sleeping, and then called the ADON.She was told to just go along with it . There was a resident in the dying process receiving Oxyfast bucally Q15 min. Prn pain and also receiving Oxyfast Q6hr. routinely (Hold if unconscious).

This "Med Tech" had only studied a Med-pass booklet and answered the questions in the booklet 2wks. prior to being handed over the keys to the Med. Cart! She had no clinical experience at all! My understanding is that she picked up the booklet at the local Dept. of Social Services or the Dept. of Human Resources. Does that make any sense to anyone?

I'll try to keep you informed about this situation.

Thanks again for everyone's input!

Melinda Sue

You need to secretly "leak" this info to the local news investigative reporter. Try to pick a slow news day, MAYBE someone will see the danger.

Yes, investigative reporters love scandals involving lax long term care facilities....we have one or two every year with hidden cameras and all...:roll

Let us know how things go...I would love to hear that all your nurses resigned because of this, but I'm sure there will be a few suckups who will 'go along to get along'. Fools.

As soon as a problem occurs it will be the nurses' heads served up on a silver platter. :stone

Specializes in Specializes in L/D, newborn, GYN, LTC, Dialysis.
Originally posted by mattsmom81

As soon as a problem occurs it will be the nurses' heads served up on a silver platter. :stone

best remember THIS piece of advice. I would get out of there fast AND leave a report with all the local news stations as I went.

Unbelievable!

Time for a rapid strategic retreat from that facility (I won't even go into the inappropriate way Oxyfast was ordered for that pt...:( )

Call your state's board of nursing and talk to someone in authority about this. Get, in writing, a copy of your state's NURSE PRACTICE ACT -- what is your nursing scope of practice? Are UAPs' legally allowed to pass meds in your state? This is not up to your facility -- it is up to the state. Find out the laws.

You, the NURSE,, have the background of pathophysiology, A&P, micro, pharmacology, etc. -- you know that there's more to med passes then following the five rights -- you really need to have adept assessment skills ... critical thinking skills.

No matter how intelligent a UAP is, they don't have the nursing education AND LICENSE -- it will end up on your lap. The first time a UAP crushes potassium tablets & puts them down a G-Tube (can you say CLOGGED ... can your say INCIDENT REPORT ... it will end up on YOU.)

Another reason nurses are leaving the bedside. Truly, I would not do it ...

:o

Specializes in Everything except surgery.
Originally posted by efy2178

I don't know of a state where a UAP can legally administer medications. This is not a task that can or should be delegated. If somehow the institution is reading between the lines of a board decision I can at least assure you that a licensed nurse is responsible for any and all outcomes.

EFY2178

I'm sorry but you're wrong, as there are state the allow UAP to give medications in assisted living, retirement and boarding homes. In fact there was a study done on this, and there is a protocol already set up in some states that allow this. I have even seen it myself, an although I feel this is a bad situation in too many cases, it is still being legally and illegally done.

Ah the dangers of allowing Unlicensed Personnel to pass medications raise their ugly, multi-faceted heads again. :( Now not only are the patients at severe risk, so are you. :eek:

Once again, this is why I feel that only licensed nurses should be allowed to pass medications. But we have beat this dead horse into oblivion in other threads. We all pretty much know each other's feelings about this issue.

My best advise to you is, don't do it. Don't sign off after these barely trained, unlicensed personnel. YOU will lose out in the long run, and so will your patients. If those UAPs make an error, and they will, YOU will pay the price as the Nurse who signed off on the med pass. The BON will come head hunting for YOU, not the DON and not the UAP. Make the DON put their signature on the forms. It may mean refusing to follow facility policy, maybe even putting your job at jeopardy. If it means finding another job, do it! Last time I check there are more nursing jobs available than there are nurses to fill them. At least you will still have a Nursing License to fall back on, some thing you might not have if you sign off on unlicensed personnel who pass the medications. Protect your patients and protect yourself!!!!!!

Check out this web site by the Amewrican Nurses Association reagarding Unliscensed Assitive Personnel

http://nursingworld.org/readroom/position/uap/uapuse.htm

Specializes in Everything except surgery.

Not debating the subject or definitely not agreeing with UAP giving meds. Just stating facts!

http://www.state.me.us/dhs/beas/alls/rulemaking/assistedliving.doc just one example

Some LTC facilities in my area utilize medication aides to pass routine po meds. They do not give narcs OR any PRN meds...those are reserved for the nurses...as well as peg meds or those patients with difficulties swallowing, etc.

The nurses I know who work with this system do NOT cosign the med aide...the facilities of take the responsibility, or so the nurses tell me. I have wondered however if push came to shove, would those same nurses who feel safe now be held liable for adverse outcomes in Texas? Something tells me probably so.:o

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