Current through 2024-13, March 27, 2024
The purpose of this course is to teach experienced certified
nursing assistants to administer selected medications to patients who are 4
years of age and older. This complex nursing task shall be performed under the
direct on-site supervision of a licensed nurse, only in: long term care nursing
facilities; state mental health institutions; county jails and state
correctional facilities; assistive living settings as part of a multi-level
facility; ambulatory care (limited to transcription of orders); and in a
hospital or critical access hospital's designated unit for swing beds, as
defined by 10-144 CMR, Ch. 112, Section
1,
1.12, provided that the following
criteria are met:
* The swing bed unit is in a designated part of the
facility;
* All swing beds are contiguous with each other; and
* The designated swing bed unit includes all of the beds
within the designated area, and does not consist of a random collection of
individual rooms or beds that are scattered throughout the facility.
A. Approval Process for the Board's
STANDARDIZED MEDICATION COURSE FOR CERTIFIED NURSING ASSISTANTS
1. Requests for initial approval to teach the
medication course shall be submitted to the Board at least 60 days prior to the
desired starting date of the course and annually thereafter. Board approval
shall be received by the educational institution or health care facility/agency
prior to implementation of the medication course.
2. Revisions in the content of the medication
course and changes in instructional staff, classroom and/or clinical sites
shall be submitted to the Board for approval prior to implementation of the
medication course.
B.
General Requirements for Teaching the Course
1. Only the Board's STANDARDIZED MEDICATION
COURSE FOR CERTIFIED NURSING ASSISTANTS shall be utilized for medication
courses.
2. The registered
professional nurse, by law, is responsible for the supervision and teaching of
nursing personnel. Therefore, a registered professional nurse shall be in
charge of the medication course.
3.
Only registered professional nurses shall serve as classroom and clinical
instructors. Members of the other disciplines may assist the instructor as
necessary and desirable.
4. No
medication course shall be conducted that includes less than 60 hours of
classroom instruction, 20 hours of skills laboratory and 40 hours of
correlated, supervised clinical practice.
5. The clinical instructor/student ratio must
be at least one instructor to every three students when administering
medications in the clinical setting.
6. All course objectives must be met to
successfully complete this course. All skills listed in the Skills Check List
must be demonstrated and the student must perform return demonstrations
satisfactorily, either in the clinical setting or in the skills
laboratory.
7. Content need not be
taught in the order listed. Time may be added and emphasis made by the
instructor to highlight certain aspects of the curriculum.
8. Students participating in a certified
nursing assistant-medication program will not be taught content beyond what is
included in the Board approved Prescribed Certified Nursing
Assistant-Medication Course.
9.
Student instruction for subcutaneous diabetic medications will be for patients
with stable diabetic conditions; medications administered through the
gastrostomy routes will be for patients who have a chronic, stable access tube;
and nebulizer therapy will be for patients with chronic disease.
C. Faculty Qualifications
1. The faculty member must hold current
licensure in Maine as a registered professional nurse or a multistate license
issued by a state that has adopted the Nurse Licensure Compact and in which the
licensee legally resides.
2. The
faculty member must have two years of medication administration or supervision
of medication administration experience as a registered professional nurse in a
clinical setting in the last five years.
3. A written recommendation attesting to
previous teaching experience and ability is required.
D. Student Requirements for Admission
1. Active listing on the MAINE REGISTRY OF
CERTIFIED NURSING ASSISTANTS and DIRECT CARE WORKERS.
2. Evidence of employment as a CNA for 1200
hours in the last two years.
3.
Tenth grade reading and writing comprehension competency level on a competency
assessment mechanism as approved by the Board.
E. Certificate of Training
1. The institution or agency conducting the
Board's medication course shall award a certificate of training to each student
who satisfactorily completes the course. Such certificate shall clearly
designate the following:
a) completion of the
Board's STANDARDIZED MEDICATION COURSE FOR CERTIFIED NURSING
ASSISTANTS;
b) the specific number
of classroom/laboratory hours;
c)
the specific number of correlated, supervised clinical hours;
d) the exact beginning and ending dates of
the course;
e) the skill level
achieved in the course;
f) name of
institution or agency conducting the course;
g) the limitations of the certification:
selected injectable diabetic medications and non-injectable medications to
patients 4 years and older under the on-site supervision of a licensed nurse,
and only in long term care nursing facilities, state mental health
institutions, county jails and state correctional facilities, assistive living
settings as part of a multi-level facility, ambulatory care (limited to
transcription of orders), and in a hospital or critical access hospital's
designated unit for swing beds, as defined by 10-144 CMR, Ch. 112, Section 1,
1.12.
h) signature of the registered professional
nurse director of the course; and
i) statement of approval by the
Board.
2. The certificate
awarded shall remain the property of the certified nursing assistant to whom it
is awarded.
3. Certificates of
training will be awarded only to certified nursing assistants who have
successfully completed the Board's medication course. There is no mechanism to
award certificates for comparable training, nor can this medication course be
challenged.
F. Exemption
to Requirement for Completion of CNA-M Course
1. The following individuals are not required
to complete the Board's STANDARDIZED MEDICATION COURSE FOR CERTIFIED NURSING
ASSISTANTS in order to administer selected medications to patients who are
4 years of age and older under the
conditions outlined in Section 4:
a) A Maine
RN nursing student who has an active listing on the MAINE REGISTRY OF CERTIFIED
NURSING ASSISTANTS and DIRECT CARE WORKERS provides a letter from the director
of the student's nursing program that verifies completion of medication
administration education that is equivalent to the CNA-M course; and
b) A graduate of a Maine registered
professional nurse or practical nurse program who has an active listing on the
MAINE REGISTRY OF CERTIFIED NURSING ASSISTANTS and DIRECT CARE WORKERS provides
evidence of completion of the nursing program.
c) The director of the nursing program will
submit documents to the facility verifying the information.
G. Certified Nursing Assistant
Medication Title
1. Certified Nursing
Assistant-Medications (CNA-M) shall be the title.
H. Continuing Competency
1. A health care facility applying for Board
approval to conduct the medication course shall provide a mechanism for
maintaining competency.
2. A
facility or adult education program applying for Board approval to conduct the
medication course shall provide evidence that all of its potential CNA-M
students maintain an active status on the MAINE REGISTRY OF CERTIFIED NURSING
ASSISTANTS and DIRECT CARE WORKERS and are in good standing.
I. Facilities and Resources
1. The physical or virtual classroom and
clinical facilities utilized for the medication course shall be adequate to the
needs of the course and to the size of instructional staff and student body.
These include classrooms, conference rooms, and laboratories sufficient in
numbers and size to facilitate scheduling classes on a sound educational basis
and to fulfill the objectives of the course. Clinical education may not be
conducted virtually.
2. The
resources for planned learning experiences shall include the quality and
variety needed for the objectives of the course.
3. Learning resources shall be available for
use by students and instructors. The holdings shall be consistent with the
needs of the curriculum, the student body, and the instructors.
J. Evaluation of Medication Course
The registered professional nurse director of the medication
course and the instructors shall be responsible for determining and developing
methods and procedures to be used in measuring the extent to which the
objectives of the medication course have been achieved. The results of such
self-appraisal shall be the basis for future action in planning improved course
delivery.
