The Alabama Board of Nursing is on the cusp of launching a new process for certifying nursing support technicians, a process designed to both eliminate redundancies and ease workloads for nurses, of which there remains a growing shortage.
“This is going to be a major paradigm shift,” Peggy Benson, executive officer for the nursing board, told Alabama Daily News recently. “It really is in thinking about those workers and how we can utilize them.”
The new certification process will create a new credential for nursing support technicians, or NSTs, and thereby, make education and testing among NSTs uniform. It went into effect earlier this month after the passage of Senate Bill 25 earlier this year, sponsored by Sen. April Weaver, R-Brierfield, the Alabama Legislature’s only nurse.
There are about 12,000 to 14,000 NSTs employed under various titles, such as patient care technicians or medical technicians. However, the nursing board does not regulate NSTs, who today require no certification and must work under the supervision of a nurse at all times.
Nurses also bear responsibility for violations or infractions committed by NSTs under their supervision, which — along with the 16 different types of NSTs that each specialize in different skill sets — has been frequently cited by nurses as a source for burnout.
Shortage
“You have all of these 16 titles, and if we can reduce them to one title across the state, then, you know who you’re working with and you know what skills they can and cannot do,” Benson said.
That burnout has contributed significantly to Alabama’s nurse shortage, with a survey last year indicating that more than 38,000 intended on leaving the profession within the next five years.
Permitting the nursing board to regulate and certify NSTs under a uniform education and training program, the new process will ensure every NST carries the same skill set, and eliminate the culpability nurses currently have for the actions of NSTs under their supervision.
“During COVID, the nurses were so burned out because they did not have help at the bedside, and they were working very long hours,” Benson said.
Patient protection
The new certification process will also help with patient protection given that all NSTs would be required to go through a uniform certification process.
“Now the hospitals do a great job of training them, but the hospital can’t account for bad actors,” Honor Ingels, chief communications officer for the nursing board, told ADN Friday. “Nurses will have a record of their bad actions, and these technicians without regulation do not currently.”
The improved safety would also extend to at-home medical care, Benson said.
It’s estimated to take between three and five years to be fully implemented as certifying the existing 12,000 to 14,000 NSTs is not mandatory. Those who have been NSTs for well over a decade, Benson said, would be grandfathered in to the new certification process, and only be required to take a competency test, rather than undergo education courses that future NSTs will be required to take going forward.
EDITOR’S NOTE — This story was written by Alexander Willis and originally published by Alabama Daily News. It is reprinted with permission.
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