Healthcare Jobs in Montana

The statute lists 7 conditions, and 1 of them is a certificate from another agency altogether. The applicant submits written evidence of an approved 4-year high school course of study or the equivalent as determined by the office of public instruction; a valid certificate from the department of public health and human services as a certified nursing assistant; employment as a certified nursing assistant for a minimum of 1,000 hours in a long-term care facility licensed for skilled nursing care; and a valid certificate in cardiopulmonary resuscitation. Then come training and testing. The applicant has either completed a board-specified training program of 100 hours covering classroom instruction, laboratory skills and supervised medication administration related to basic pharmacology and the principles of safe medication administration, or holds a current medication aide license in another state whose program the board determines to be reasonably equivalent. On top of that sit a board-approved competency examination passed with at least 80% proficiency and 6 hours of annual continuing education in pharmacology and medication administration. The board's rules still set the curriculum for that 100-hour program and the standards for the work itself; what they no longer carry is their own copy of these conditions.

The rule sets floors, and 32 + 8 + 40 is the smallest a program may be: no less than 32 hours of didactic classroom presentation, 8 hours of simulated practical experience and 40 hours of direct, supervised clinical experience, so 80 hours in all. A separate subsection lists 12 components the curriculum has to cover, from the six rights of medication administration through to a skills checklist. There are 2 ways to reach the examination behind a Montana medication aide job: that program, or an unencumbered certification or license to administer medications held in another state or U.S. jurisdiction.

The second half of the Montana section granting the scope sets 5 prohibitions. A licensed medication aide II may not administer medications on an as-needed basis; may not administer parenteral or subcutaneous medications, except for prelabeled, predrawn insulin; may not administer medications through nasogastric routes or by gastrostomy or jejunostomy tubes; may not convert or calculate dosages; and may not take verbal orders related to changes in medications and dosages. The grant above those limits is a short one, and it covers services that require basic knowledge of medications and medication administration. One thread's left loose. The standards for both tiers still define allowable routes by pointing at a rule the same notice repealed, though the definition itself was moved rather than dropped and now sits in the board's definitions rule. Each standard cites that definitions rule elsewhere in its own text, for something else.