BOSTON (SHNS) - Health officials are rolling out regulations to implement a 2024 law legalizing the use of certified medication aides in long-term care facilities, rules that supporters say will help address severe staffing shortages but that nurses are still wary could put patients at risk.

"As Massachusetts continues to face a historic health care workforce crisis, particularly in the nursing facility sector that has nearly 5,000 vacant caregiving positions, this regulation offers timely, responsible and safe standards for implementing the certified medication aide role," Susan Misiorski, testifying for the Massachusetts Senior Care Association, said at a public hearing on the regulations on Monday.

A 2024 long-term care law authorized the Department of Public Health to create a regula

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