Vaccination procedure
Implementation of the vaccination procedure consists of the vaccinator’s actions before, during and after the vaccination.
Vaccination is not just a single injection or another dose of the vaccine. It is also important to ensure that vaccines are transported and stored properly.
The vaccination procedure includes counseling a client or the parents of a child, and it requires a lot of evidence based knowledge on vaccines, contraindications to vaccination, possible adverse events, possible anaphylactic reaction, human anatomy and good interaction skills.
Vaccinations can be administered in several ways: through injections, oral solutions or capsules and nasal sprays, and therefore it is important to know all the required techniques. Vaccinations are injected either into the skin (ID), under the skin (SC), or into the muscle (IM). It is important to know these in theory, but vaccination should also be trained in practice.
Special knowledge and skills are required for vaccination of children.
Ethics
It is ethically important that the vaccination competence of a health care professional is up to date. There are both international and national recommendations and instructions for vaccinating. The client must receive enough information of the vaccine and possible adverse events after it in order to be able to do informed consent. It is also important that the client trusts the professional; the client has to perceive the professional to be competent (Fadda et al, 2016).
Fadda, M., Calimberti E., Carraro, V. & Schulz, PJ. (2016). What are parents' perspectives on psychological empowerment in the MMR vaccination decision? A focus group study. BMJ Open, 6(4). doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2015-010773
Vaccination Step by Step
How to administer vaccines in practice
Self-tests and assignments
Further reading
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