Development of a standardized medication assistant curriculum.

A crossthecountry,many nonnurses are administering medications to individuals in nonacute healthcare settings and in other settings where healthcare is not the primary focus (hereinafter, these will be referred to as nonacute settings). Because many states are using medication assistants in nonacute settings, the Boards of Nursing, in their mission to protect the public, became concerned about a lack of uniformity in the qualifications and training of these unlicensed assistive personnel. Therefore, the Member Boards of the National Council State Boards of Nursing (NCSBN)* passed a resolution asking NCSBN to conduct a job analysis of medication assistants, develop a model curriculum, and explore the feasibility for administering a competency examination. At NCSBN’s 2007 annual meeting, the information on the job analysis and feasibility study was presented, and the Member Boards adopted, through a majority vote, the model medication assistant curriculum. This article will discuss the development of that NCSBN model curriculum, thus enabling employers and regulators to understand how and why it was established and to learn about its recommendations. The National Council State Boards of Nursing took the position in their 2004 Model Nursing Practice Act and Model Administrative Rules, Article XVIII, Chapter 18, that if jurisdictions use medication assistants, they should be regulated by Boards of Nursing. The NCSBN model practice act and rules termed the medication assistant who received and passed an approved training program and successfully completed a comprehensive examination, a medication assistant certified. Currently, 14 Boards of Nursing regulate medication assistants. This model curriculum will provide those Boards that do regulate medication assistants, as well as those that may in the future, with a resource for regulating and training medication assistants.