Description

To support critical staffing needs in Nebraska’s assisted living and nursing facilities during the COVID-19 pandemic, the State of Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) has temporarily modified medication aide (MA) training requirements. The Governor’s executive order suspended Nebraska’s 40-hour training and exam requirements for MAs to work in a nursing facility, assisted living facility, or intermediate care facility for persons with intellectual disabilities (ICF/ID).

The facility is responsible to ensure that any temporary MA is competent to provide care or services. The facility should maintain documentation of the individual’s competence. The temporary MA is still required to send the signed and completed application, along with the appropriate fee, to DHHS and be placed on the MA registry. DHHS has provided guidance that:

• If an individual has never been on the MA registry before, once the completed application has been sent to DHHS, the MA can provide medications for up to 30 days without being on the registry.
• On average, DHHS is processing medication aide applications (initial, renewals, and reapplications) within five to seven days of receiving the applications in the DHHS office unless the application is not complete.
  • Lack of completion is usually due to failure to include certified court copies of criminal convictions, sign the application, or mark competencies as completed on the application.

To assist in this effort, the Nebraska Health Care Association (NHCA) has created a Temporary Medication Aide 8-Hour Training that satisfies the requirement for demonstration of the ten competencies identified in Nebraska Revised Statue 71-6725, which can be found in Section 5 of the required of the temporary medication aide to submit to DHHS. 

The facility will need to competency test each temporary medication aide on providing routine medications by the routes identified in Title 172, NAC 95-005.01, which can be found The facility will need to competency test each temporary medication aide on providing routine medications by the routes identified in Title 172, NAC 95-005.01, which can be found on the Initial Application under Section 5. Competency skills checklists are available on the NHCA website.