The Senate Finance Committee voted in favor of a budget amendment that would reimburse licensed nursing assistants for their medication nursing assistant certification program costs. According to Sen. Howard Pearl, a Loudon Republican who introduced the amendment, MNA certification would play an important role in easing the workload of nurses at nursing homes and hospitals. “When it comes to dispersing certain medications, the LNAs themselves are not able to do it without the medical certification, or becoming an MNA,” he said.