(1) A medication assistant endorsement education and training program must:

(a)(i) Be a nursing commission-approved nursing assistant certified training program in good standing; or

(ii) Be a nursing commission-approved nursing educational program in good standing; and

(b) Have a program director and instructional staff who each hold current, active, Washington state licenses in good standing as a registered nurse. The commission may deny or withdraw approval of a program director or instructor if there is or has been any action taken against that person's health care license, or any license that restricts his or her permission to work with vulnerable adults.

(2) To apply, the program must submit a completed application packet and application forms provided by the department of health to the nursing commission. The packet must include:

(a) Program objectives;

(b) Curriculum outline and content as detailed in subsection (6) of this section;

(c) Written contractual agreements related to the provision of the training. For any program that uses another facility for the clinical practicum, this includes an affiliation agreement between the training program and the facility. "Clinical practicum" means clinical experience under the supervision of a qualified registered nurse instructor. The affiliation agreement must describe how the program will provide clinical experience in the facility. The agreement must specify the rights and responsibilities of students, the residents, the clinical facility, and the school;

(d) Sample lesson plan for one unit;

(e) Skills checklists for student lab performance and clinical performance during the practicum with dates of skills testing and signature of the instructor;

(f) Description of classroom, lab, and clinical practicum facilities;

(g) Declaration of compliance with administrative guidelines signed by the program director;

(h) Verification that the program director has completed a course on adult instruction or has one year of experience in the past three years teaching adults. Acceptable experience does not include staff development or patient teaching. A program director working exclusively in post secondary educational setting is exempt from this requirement; and

(i) Verification that the medication assistant training program or school is approved to operate in the state of Washington by the state board for community and technical colleges; the superintendent of public instruction; or the workforce training and education coordinating board.

(3) Failure to submit a completed application packet within ninety days will result in closure of the application.

(4) If a program application is pending for more than ninety days, the proposed program must submit a revised program application.

(5) The program director, or designee shall:

(a) Agree to allow and cooperate with on-site surveys and investigations of the training programs, as requested by the nursing commission;

(b) Comply with any changes in training standards and guidelines in order to maintain approved status;

(c) Notify the nursing commission and any other approving agency of any changes in overall curriculum plan or major curriculum content changes prior to implementation such as changes in program hours, clinical practice facilities, program name or ownership, legal status, and credit status impacting the program's ability to sustain itself financially;

(d) Notify the nursing commission and any other approving agency of changes in program director or instructors; and

(e) Maintain an average annual student pass rate of eighty percent for first-time test takers of the medication assistant competency evaluation.

(6) Core curriculum competency requirements.

(a) The program curriculum must include training on the specific tasks that a medication assistant may perform as well as training on identifying tasks that may not be performed by a medication assistant as listed in WAC 246-841-589.

(b) The program curriculum must include the complete medication assistant-certified model curriculum adopted by the National Council of State Boards of Nursing. The education and training program may add to the required curriculum as stated in these rules but may not delete any content from the required curriculum.

(c) The curriculum must include a minimum of sixty hours of didactic training which must include work in a skills lab or simulation facility.

(7) Practicum. The curriculum will include a minimum of forty hours of supervised and progressive clinical practicum in the administration of medications to residents in a nursing home. At no time will the ratio of students to instructor be allowed to exceed ten students to one instructor during clinical practicum.

(8) The program director must attest to the student's successful completion of the course on forms or electronic methods established by the commission.