7 Essential Medication Aide Interview Questions to Ask

A certified medication aide (CMA) can be a valuable addition to your healthcare team. Not only are these professionals specially trained to facilitate medication administration, but they also help alleviate the workload of your nursing staff. Asking the right medication aide interview questions will help you hire the person who is best suited for this role. Also, be sure to check out current medication aide job postings to get a better sense of how other facilities are appealing to candidates.

While posting a detailed job description can help attract qualified candidates, the interview is where you can really determine how an individual would apply their qualifications in practice. To help you with this process, we put together a list of essential interview questions to ask when you’re ready to hire your next medication aide.

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Medication Aide Interview Questions

Medication aides need to be highly detail-oriented and compassionate toward patients who they’ll be interacting with on a regular basis. With this in mind, we’ve provided seven interview questions, with insights into what candidates’ answers reveal, that will help you assess these important qualities.

1. Why do you want to be a medication aide?

This question is a great opener because it explores the motivations of a candidate. You can get an introductory sense of their career intentions and assess how well they align with the needs of the role. As medication aides typically work in long-term care settings, you can also gauge their interest in working with your specific patient or resident population.

What to listen for:

• Motivations that align with organizational values
• Passion for helping others and empathy for the patients they may care for

Potential follow-up questions:

• Do you have any past experiences that have prepared you for working as a medication aide?
• Do you have any professional goals (short-term or long-term) that you’d like to achieve while working with us?

2. What qualities do you think a good medication aide should have?

This is a good precursor to other medication aide interview questions, because it allows you to get a sense of what qualities a candidate may bring to the role if hired. Medication aides must be adept at following directions, communicating, and delivering patient-centered care.

What to listen for:

• Understanding of the role’s key responsibilities and awareness of which skills support those functions best
• Knowledge of the role’s scope of practice

Potential follow-up questions:

• Of those qualities that you listed, which do you think is the most important one for doing this job well?
• Are there any specific qualities that you intend to develop to improve your job performance?

3. What steps would you take to monitor a patient after they take their medications?

A medication aide will be responsible for not only administering medications, but also reporting to their supervising nurses if a patient has any adverse reactions. This question will allow you to gauge how attentive a candidate is to every step of their care process — even after their primary tasks are completed.

What to listen for:

• Willingness to carry out other patient related care tasks (that fall within the medication aide scope)
• Specific communication tools and considerations for keeping patients, family, and other members of the care team informed

Potential follow-questions:

• Has a patient ever had an adverse reaction to a medication while in your care? How did you handle that situation?
• Can you list some specific signs and symptoms that you monitor for after administering a new or high-risk medication?

4. What are some strategies you use to prevent medication errors?

To become a medication aide, CNA experience and other certification training is typically required. Because of this, a candidate should already have a foundational understanding of proper medication handling.

In particular, you can assess how a candidate makes considerations within the context of the five rights of medication administration (i.e., right patient, right drug, right time, right dose, and right route). The comprehensiveness of their answer can really show how detail-oriented they are when performing one of the most important aspects of the job.

What to listen for:

• Knowledge of the basic safeguards against medication errors and how to effectively employ them
• Willingness to learn and adapt to standard shifts and practice changes

Potential follow-up questions:

• How would you handle a situation where you believed the wrong medication (or wrong dose) had been prescribed?
• What steps do you take to minimize distractions while preparing or administering medications?

5. How would you handle a situation where a patient is reluctant or scared to take their medications?

Medication administration doesn’t always go smoothly, and there are many reasons why a patient may refuse or feel reluctant to take their medications. This question allows you to assess a candidate’s response to common situations and their ability to problem-solve.

What to listen for:

• Responses guided by empathy and respect for patient autonomy
• Strong communication skills, even when facing challenges

Potential follow-up questions:

• Can you describe a situation where you needed to gain a patient’s trust to overcome an obstacle to care?
• What would be your next steps if you can’t get the patient to take their medications?

6. Tell me about a time when you had to work through a conflict with another coworker in a healthcare setting. How did you handle it?

Medication aides work directly under other nursing professionals, so it’s important that they’re able to function well within a team setting. This question allows you to assess a candidate’s soft skills when handling tougher interpersonal situations and gauge their overall sense of professionalism.

What to listen for:

• A problem-solving mindset and a willingness to take responsibility when necessary
• Appreciation for collaboration and teamwork

Potential follow-up questions:

• How would you ensure that the conflict didn’t interrupt or affect patient care?
• If the conflict continued to escalate despite your best efforts, who would you turn to for help?

7. What infection control precautions would you take before administering medications?

There are many modes of medication administration that could lead to preventable infection if proper precautions aren’t taken. Infection control is an important part of a medication aide’s training, so a candidate should be able to showcase knowledge in this area.

What to listen for:

• A commitment to upholding the best care and safety standards
• Knowledge of the standard precautions, and how to implement them in care

Potential follow-up questions:

• What infection control strategies are the most pertinent to your job functions?
• If an unwrapped scheduled medication dropped onto the ground, what would your next steps be?

Get Access to Top Healthcare Professionals Today

Preparing medication aide interview questions is one of many steps needed to hire the most qualified health professionals for your team. If you’re overwhelmed by the hiring process, we can also give you access to more than 1 million healthcare professionals looking for work. IntelyCare’s industry-leading job board can help you quickly find the right professionals for your facility.