The Senate Finance Committee voted in favor of a budget amendment that would provide licensed nursing assistants reimbursement for their certification program to become a medication nursing assistant. 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.