{"id":152153,"date":"2021-01-12T00:37:54","date_gmt":"2021-01-11T21:37:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/who-is-allowed-to-administer-the-shot-in-canada\/"},"modified":"2021-01-12T00:37:54","modified_gmt":"2021-01-11T21:37:54","slug":"who-is-allowed-to-administer-the-shot-in-canada","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/who-is-allowed-to-administer-the-shot-in-canada\/","title":{"rendered":"#Who is allowed to administer the shot in Canada?"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#Who is allowed to administer the shot in Canada?<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

\n Vaxx Populi: Health care workers\u00a0need specific qualifications to immunize people. The Public Health Agency of Canada has made the training free to provinces and territories.\n <\/div>\n
\n In the past few weeks, countless doctors, nurses and other health care professionals have <\/span>volunteered to help <\/span><\/a>with Canada\u2019s vaccination programs in an effort to get as many Canadians vaccinated as quickly as possible.\u00a0But who is actually allowed to administer the COVID-19 vaccination?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The answer isn\u2019t as simple as it seems. For one, you must be a\u00a0health care worker, and for another, you\u00a0need specific qualifications to immunize people. Provinces determine the professions and qualifications. For example, registered nurses in British Columbia need to have the specific competencies established by the B.C. Centre for Disease Control (BCCDC), meaning they take the <\/span>immunization competency course<\/span><\/a> offered through the BCCDC or BCCDC-app<\/a>roved education through another agency or organization.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

RELATED:\u00a0How quickly will the COVID-19 vaccines start curbing the pandemic in Canada?<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

While those systems may be enough to deal with vaccination needs during usual times, they can\u2019t handle the demands created by this pandemic. So provinces are adapting as they go.<\/p>\n

To widen the pool of people allowed to administer vaccines, Manitoba <\/span>issued an order on Dec. 9 under its Regulated Health Professions Act<\/span><\/a>\u00a0that extended the ability to vaccinate from the existing set of regulated professions\u2014which\u00a0included nurses, paramedics, physicians and some medical assistants\u2014to a wider pool that now includes\u00a0physiotherapists, veterinarians, students in health care programs and retirees who are no longer registered with their professional colleges.\u00a0\u201cThere\u2019s a whole group of very well-trained people with backgrounds in health\u00a0<\/span>who know how to administer injections, sterile techniques and safety in terms of medication administration,\u201d\u00a0says\u00a0RaeAnne Thibeault, academic executive director at Winnipeg-based Red River College. They just needed to upgrade their existing base of knowledge to include vaccinations.<\/p>\n

The college was tasked with creating and running a COVID-19 immunization program to train everyone hired by Shared Health Manitoba for its vaccination program who didn\u2019t have specific immunization credentials. (The province opened an <\/span>employment portal<\/span><\/a> to staff its vaccination clinics. The jobs show the complexity of the task, which includes hiring schedulers, clinic leaders and managers as well as <\/span>client navigators<\/span><\/a> and <\/span>post-immunization observers<\/span><\/a>.)<\/span><\/p>\n

RELATED:\u00a0Who is next in line for the vaccine in Canada?<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

It took two weeks and 20 people for Red River College to get the program up and running\u00a0<\/strong>by Dec. 13, explains Bill Rutherford, the college\u2019s business development manager. The <\/span>eight-hour tuition-free course consists<\/span><\/a> of five hours of theory, delivered online, as well as three hours in skills labs, held at Red River College in Winnipeg as well as Assiniboine Community College in Brandon, with other sites due to open shortly.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Though no province contacted by Maclean\u2019s <\/em>would say how many people will be needed for their COVID-19 vaccination programs, Manitoba offers a clue as to the scale of the effort. Since Dec. 13, some 384 people hired by Shared Health Manitoba have taken Red River College\u2019s vaccine administration micro-credential program.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Public Health Agency of Canada is making it easy for people to become qualified, providing provincial and territorial health agencies with complimentary registrations to the Education Program for Immunization Competencies (EPIC) course offered by the Canadian Paediatric Society (CPS), as well as one on vaccine hesitancy and another specifically on hesitancy to the COVID-19 vaccine. EPIC,\u00a0a self-guided online program that usually costs $200, is one of the society\u2019s most popular offerings, and is\u00a0often bulk-purchased by provincial health authorities\u00a0for their workers, the CPS told Maclean\u2019s<\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n

RELATED:\u00a0COVID-19 in Canada: How our battle against the second wave is going<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

British Columbia is one of those provinces offering free access to EPIC to qualified professionals. To quickly train people,\u00a0BCCDC is recommending that just <\/span>five of EPIC\u2019s 14 modules<\/span><\/a> are needed to administer COVID-19 vaccine.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

These <\/span>slimmed-down immunization qualifications are designed<\/span>\u00a0to last only as long as needed during this pandemic<\/span><\/a>. Manitoba\u2019s order extending the number of professions that can give the COVID-19 vaccine \u201cterminates on the day that the minister of health, seniors and active living no longer believes that a serious and immedia<\/a>te threat to public health exists in the Province of Manitoba, unless sooner revoked.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

As Canada rolls out the country\u2019s most complex vaccination project to date, <\/em>Maclean\u2019s presents Vaxx Populi, an ongoing series<\/a> in which Patricia Treble tackles the most pressing questions related to the new COVID-19 vaccines. Send us a question you\u2019d like answered at\u00a0vaccines@macleans.ca. If you have specific questions about your own health, we recommend consulting a family doctor or the local public health authority in your area.<\/em>
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