Preparing more troops for the vaccination frontlines
Under new COVID health regulations, pharmacy technicians are allowed to administer the vaccine, necessitating training for those who hadn’t previously vaccinated. They join pharmacists, who were granted the right to vaccinate in Rhode Island about 10 years ago.
Mary-Jane Kanaczet, director of the College’s Office of
Continuing Professional Development for the Health Professions, received a license
from the American Pharmacists Association to provide the training, and taught
33 pharmacy techs and 29 pharmacists recently, including Paul Larrat, dean of
the College of Pharmacy.
“There were primarily pharmacy technicians in the training, but we also had a handful of pharmacists trained,” Larrat said. “This is in addition to the hundreds of students who we’ve trained in recent years to administer vaccines. They get certified early on — in their second professional year — and they’re able to begin administering vaccines in pharmacies, under the supervision of a pharmacist.”
Originally
developed by Washington State University and recently revised through a
partnership between WSU and the American Pharmacists Association, the Pharmacy-Based
Immunization Administration by Pharmacy Technicians training program
explores the expanding role of the pharmacy technician by providing additional
skills training to administer immunizations. The two-part program
emphasizes a healthcare team collaboration between pharmacists and technicians,
which aims to improve population health by increasing immunization rates in
states that allow technicians to immunize.
Composed
of an online self-study component combined with a live seminar that teaches
hands-on immunization techniques, the program offers six hours of continuing
education for technicians and pharmacists. Director of Experiential Education
Brett Feret and Coordinator of Accreditation and Assessment Matthew Lacroix
headed up the class that begins with a CPR certification from the American
Heart Association. The four-hour long course covers all aspects of
administering a vaccine, from specific patient considerations like how to
choose the right size needle, to specific instruction on the proper technique
of injecting the vaccine. The pharmacy techs then practice injecting sterile
saline in each other, an important lesson for new vaccinators.
“It
is a new regulation that pharmacy techs are allowed to inject,” Feret said,
noting the techs are immunizing health care workers and nursing home residents,
and will likely do the same in pharmacies once the vaccine is available to the
public at large. “Obviously, that’s mostly due to the pandemic that this
program was created to increase the number of vaccinators to help meet the
critical demand.”
Trainees
specifically learn to:
Describe
proper technique when drawing up and administering immunizations.
Recognize
commonly used vaccines and their corresponding routes of administration.
Distinguish
proper needle length selection based on vaccine and patient age and size.
Identify
proper documentation procedures.
Recall
vaccine storage requirements.
Describe
safety measures to avoid accidental needle stick injuries.
Recognize
appropriate actions to take in emergency situations.
Demonstrate
a successful technique when administering an intramuscular and subcutaneous
injection.
Demonstrate
appropriate distraction techniques during immunization administration.
Demonstrate
the use of universal precautions as they pertain to blood borne pathogens.
Explain
the procedures for managing a vaccine reaction emergency.
The
training is just one way URI College of Pharmacy personnel are helping in the
fight against the pandemic. Dozens of faculty members and even students are in
the community battling the disease. Experts, including Professors Kerry
LaPlante and Virginia Lemay have been working on the vaccine’s
process from the lab to the pharmacy. Clinical Assistant Professor
Todd Brothers is heading up the pharmacy at the Care New England Field Hospital in
Cranston, where several other faculty members and students are working shifts.
“The
greatest need right now is to get hospital workers vaccinated, and they’re
turning to our students and their pharmacists and technicians,” Larrat said.
“It’s a big job.”
