There is no question with regard to trade certification: medication aide, nursing assistant and other health professionals all need it in order to work at their designated fields. Certification basically refers to a vital piece of paper that people in sensitive trades are required to have... and arguably, no trade is more sensitive than working in a medical facility, such as a hospital, a clinic or a pharmacy.



What can you expect from training to get certification? Medication aide aspirants will wonder if they actually need to study medicine in order to quality for training. This is not so. One does not need to have an extensive knowledge of medicine, although this is of course a plus... what is more important for a medication aide, is to develop a sense of organization and punctuality, which are both required skills on the job.

Moreover, a medication aide wishing to work in a specific state must take the certification exam set by that state. While some elements of certification may be standardized, certain states may require some medication aides to be intimately familiar with certain laws that would govern their performance on the job. Passing rates for the Board would also differ for different regions.

What is a medication aide? A medication aide is also called a "medical technician" or "med tech" in some regions. The prime responsibility of a med tech is to assist nurses and doctors in dispensing medication on the job. They differ from pharmacy technicians in that their primary responsibility is tending to inpatients - that is, patients who are required to stay in the hospital in which they are treated.

Certainly many inpatients also rely on the medication dispensed by pharmacies... but the help given by med techs or medication aides is indispensable within hospitals. In the case of late-night medications, when close relatives are no longer allowed to stay and acquire and dispense medication for the sick, medication aides take over. They should be depended on for their ability to stick to a schedule and not get the medications mixed up.

Medication aides are not only called for in hospitals - they are also useful in senior homes, or other places that are badly in need of good medical professionals.

In order to gain proper certification, medication aide must be able to pass the Board for a certified Medication Training Course. But this is not all. An application for medication aide must be filed with the hospital or institution one wishes to be hired in. And, of course, one must be listed on the official Medication Aide Registry of the country in which he or she wishes to work.