FAYETTEVILLE, NC — At least fifty nursing assistants will be removed from North Carolina’s Board of Nursing registry.
This comes after the Attorney General’s Office shut down operations at North Carolina Medical Institute (NCMI) in Fayetteville.
The Attorney General’s Office and North Carolina’s Board of Nursing are unsure where the 50 or so nursing assistants are working now. Some may be staffed in hospitals, others are possibly working in nursing homes.
The more than 50 nursing aids signed up for NCMI’s Nursing Assistant Two program.
The Attorney General’s office says the private school certified students as qualified nursing aides after completing far less training than required by law. The nursing aids are now being told they are ineligible to function in a Nursing Assistant Two role, effective October 26th. They must also notify their employers immediately.
Matt Liles with the Attorney General’s office said “the victim is the student. Yes they pose some sort of health risk because people, when they go to a practitioner, need to be assured that they have achieved a certain level of training that has been certified. But the students were the ones who went, paid anywhere from $150-$800 looking to better themselves.”
If the students can prove they obtained the requirements elsewhere, under the direction of a registered nurse, they may remain on the registry.
Nursing aid two’s perform tasks such as oxygen therapy and wound irrigation.
Our attempts to speak with the owner of NCMI were unsuccessful.
The Attorney General’s office is seeking a permanent band on NCMI’s operations and refunds for students.
