To propose that vets and dentists should vaccinate people right now?

[Destinysdaughter]

I saw this on Twitter, a vet saying he'd be willing to administer the Covid vaccine and someone else said why not dentist too? May be a bit leftfield, but with cases rising at an alarming rate, why not? I'm sure with a bit of training, these professions could be ideal to help accelerate the vaccination process?

We should just do our own.

My dentist is too busy. I'm always seeing her at the park and I saw her at the zoo last week. I can't get an appointment to see her as a patient for anything however.

Vaccination isn’t difficult. It’s basically an IM injection into the muscle and correct handling of the vaccine, which most people could learn in 10 mins.

Most healthcare workers would happily vaccinate themselves if given the chance!

Anyone with current registration is being asked. Why would you think they weren't?

I think all those people that think it's just sticking a syringe in an arm and job done need not apply!

I'm a registered nurse but I know there's a heap of stuff I need to read before I inject anyone.

Good luck when you get your first anaphylaxis case!

I thought that one of the on site issues was that there needs to be an overseeing doctor?

I've lost a tooth during this because dentists weren't doing fillings, so I'd rather the dentists get back to work. Likewise my vets are fantastic as vets, but have no people skills. Which isn't great while vaccinating the most vulnerable (which usually means mobility, communication and complex medical/medication issues) . So there still needs to be hcps around.

@lovelemoncurd

I think all those people that think it's just sticking a syringe in an arm and job done need not apply!

I'm a registered nurse but I know there's a heap of stuff I need to read before I inject anyone.

Good luck when you get your first anaphylaxis case!

I really hope dentists are familiar with anaphylaxis else something is seriously amiss.

Anaphylaxis is the main reason why you can’t do your own - it’s not technically difficult but you need to have an actual medic on site in case of rare but serious problems. Not all the vaccinators need to be doctors but you’d need at least one actual HCP at the location.

Also in order to be certain that a member of the public had absorbed the information needed to do their own a competent professional would have to look them in the eye while they gave the instructions in person, and by the time you’d done that you could have whipped out the syringe and jabbed them.

I was going to apply to be a vaccinator, but my profession can't administer under a PGD, so even though they're training HCAs to administer the covid vaccine, the guidance for my profession was a bit wishy washy so I didn't in the end.

We do seem to over complicate things in this country Yes it's a mammoth task and there does need to be a doctor on site but administering a vaccine takes seconds
Perhaps a nurse could advise but does it take longer to learn how to administer a vaccine as opposed to administering insulin I learned how to do this very quickly over 25 years ago with the old fashioned syringe

They're trying. I'm a dental nurse and we all offered and were told it's outside our scope of practice even tho I know of other dental nurses doing the vaccine already. We are trying

@rosie1959

We do seem to over complicate things in this country Yes it's a mammoth task and there does need to be a doctor on site but administering a vaccine takes seconds Perhaps a nurse could advise but does it take longer to learn how to administer a vaccine as opposed to administering insulin I learned how to do this very quickly over 25 years ago with the old fashioned syringe

I can't imagine any nurse hasn't the skills to give an injection. If they've not for a while it would be a watch one, give one supervised, off you go..

You don't need a doctor on site.. you need competent nurses. All registered nurses are accountable for their actions and wouldn't be doing it unless competent.

Over complicated is exactly right. Imagine a couple of experienced vaccinators, familiar with all the bumpf on cold chains etc (which is just storage). Give them a couple of extra nurses, they get through 3 times as many.

I had a flu vaccine recently in the corridor in a gp practise.. sleeve up, in it goes, job done.

Any nhs peer to peer vaccinators literally nab staff on their coffee break.

This is a pandemic. common sense needs applying.

Yes. I don't care who administers it, it just needs rolling out. Surely it can't be that difficult to do? I would have thought any HCP, retired HCP or vet could be trained to do it in moments.

Farmers are great at mass vaccination. We can just pen up a town full of people and work through them, a bit of red spray on those we’ve already jabbed. You can get your feet trimmed and a dose of wormer at the same time

Made me laugh sproutsnbacon that's the way to do it
Use Aldi checkout staff will all be done by a week on Tuesday

Matt Hancock on BBC breakfast just now has said they’ll be removing the red tape/ streamlining the process and removing the terrorist element of it which is agrees is “over the top”.
Hopefully this will help to get it rolled out ASAP.

They already are.

MY OH works with a large Vet conglomerate business in the UK, they have already been approached.

YABU to ‘propose’ something that is already underway

As you were interested in the vaccine administration programme, did you not spot any of the many articles and commentaries on this? Both mainstream and social media

If every person who is currently employed by the NHS (1.2million) was given 30 min online training we could get the entire population vaccinated in a couple of weeks- assuming logistics of distribution could be sorted out. We’ve all had the mandatory training and very many of us could step away from our day jobs for a week or two without huge detriment. We could easily do 100 people in a week - job done.

the problem with allowing farmers to inject the nation @sproutsnbacon is that it may start OK but after a couple of days Boris or Matt will do a ‘ewe turn’ and where will that then leave us?

@InTheSnow

the problem with allowing farmers to inject the nation *@sproutsnbacon* is that it may start OK but after a couple of days Boris or Matt will do a ‘ewe turn’ and where will that then leave us?

Morning, everyone. We've moved this thread to our Coronavirus topic now.

My friend is a dentist who is trained in sedation
She’s far too busy working through her backlog of patients she couldn’t see during lockdown to help though

I was given daily injections to do myself all through pregnancy. I can't understand why we can't do it ourselves? Am I missing something?

@JosephineDeBeauharnais

If every person who is currently employed by the NHS (1.2million) was given 30 min online training we could get the entire population vaccinated in a couple of weeks- assuming logistics of distribution could be sorted out. We’ve all had the mandatory training and very many of us could step away from our day jobs for a week or two without huge detriment. We could easily do 100 people in a week - job done.

Aren't NHS staff already overstretched? Why lumber them with yet another task when other people can step up and do it just as well?