West Virginia's medication credential for nurse aides is optional at both ends. The article creating it isn't mandatory on any nursing home or nursing home employee, and a nursing home may not require a nurse aide to become one as a condition of employment.

Median Healthcare Salaryin West Virginia

10%$16.00/hr

median$24.00/hr

90%$75.40/hr

Top Median Salary by Rolein West Virginia

Top Open Rolesin West Virginia

The seven things asked of an AMAP applicant

Approved medication assistive personnel start as West Virginia nurse aides, with at least 1 year of full-time experience behind them. On top of that the statute asks for a high school diploma or its equivalent, current CPR and first aid certification, an initial training program, a national examination, no finding against the applicant on the state's nurse aide registry, and retraining every 2 years afterwards. The same article that sets those 7 conditions also bars a nursing home from requiring its health care professionals to use AMAPs at all.

Healthcare jobs in West Virginia by role

Your questions about healthcare jobs in West Virginia, answered

Can a West Virginia AMAP also work as a nurse aide?: They can, though not in the hours they're down for medications. The statute bars assigning an AMAP to both medication administration duty and typical nurse aide duties related to resident care and assistance with activities of daily living simultaneously, and it adds that when assigned to medication administration, the AMAP's responsibility is to administer medication and the tasks related to administering it. The sentence after that says when the other work opens up: an AMAP may be assigned to other resident care and assistance with activities of daily living during such times that the AMAP isn't engaged in, or scheduled to be engaged in, the administration of medication. Being scheduled counts on its own, so what's closed is the medication block. A shift that carries no medication assignment isn't touched by any of this.
Which drugs sit outside a West Virginia AMAP's reach?: The statute takes them out of the word medication itself. For this article, medication does not mean a controlled substance listed in Schedule I, a controlled substance listed in Schedule II, buprenorphine, or benzodiazepines. All 4 exclusions sit inside the definition, ahead of any question about what an AMAP is allowed to do with a medication.
Can a West Virginia AMAP give an as-needed medication?: It takes a nurse's assessment first, and the nurse can't do it from memory. The statute bars an AMAP from administering medications to be given as needed as ordered by the health care professional, unless the supervising nurse has first performed and documented a bedside assessment, and then the AMAP may administer on the written order with specific parameters which preclude independent judgment. Health maintenance tasks are closed off in a clause of their own, and the statute defines exactly 4 of them: administering glucometer tests, administering gastrostomy tube feedings, administering enemas, and performing tracheostomy and ventilator care for residents.