The Controversy of Personal Support Workers Administering Medications

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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Personal Support Worker Salary Charts – United States

If you're interested in becoming a personal support worker then one thing you'll want to be sure to check into is the pay. It's very important to determine if the career you're considering will pay you enough to support your desired lifestyle.

For example, if you want to live in a house by the beach and drive an expensive sports car, then a career as a personal support worker may not be the right choice for you (unless you intend to marry well!).

What we've done is provide you with in-depth salary charts so that you may see exactly what personal support workers earn. You'll see which states pay the most and can use this information to help you decide if you want to pursue personal support work as a career and where you want to pursue it.