Personal
support workers administering medications has always been a controversial
issue. The laws governing this issue have always been “fuzzy” at best.
After surveying a range of institutions, practicing personal support
workers, and provincial and state personal support worker professional
organizations, the following seems to be the closest to a consensus.
If
you are a newly trained/registered personal support worker, administering
medications is well beyond the scope of what you are ready for. If you
have been in the field as a practicing personal support worker for 3 or more
years, you are in a position to administer medications, but only under the
supervision of or in conjunction with an RPN or RN.
Having
said that, the question has to be asked: Why would an employer want a personal
support worker to administer medications? Our survey showed that the
major motivating factor is money. Simply put, it is cheaper to hire a
personal support worker and add additional duties to their job than it is to
hire an RPN or RN. So what does a personal support worker do when faced
with the requirement to administer medications? These are the
recommendations that came out of our survey:
· Ask for appropriate supervision to be present
when administering the medication
· Never ever agree to mix the medication
· Insist upon receiving proper training in
administering medication before agreeing to do so
· Make sure that you are completely comfortable
with the entire process
· If you are not comfortable with this
requirement you are able to simply refuse to do it
Remember,
administering medications is a very serious undertaking which can have very
serious repercussions if not done correctly. It is essential that as a
personal support worker you are properly trained in how to do this and fully
comfortable and confident in this before you undertake this task. It is
far better to be safe and cautious than to risk the life of a patient and your
career as a personal support worker.
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