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ceelo71 t1_j504e5m wrote

Reply to comment by dryingsocks in Is there any difference in efficacy when a vaccine is administered somewhere other than the upper arm (e.g. on the foot)? by MercurioLeCher

Honestly doctors don’t give shots. Nurses are much better trained and I would trust them over a doctor

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LiquidPizza t1_j507jdq wrote

Doctors are perfectly capable of giving an intramuscular injection. It doesn't take longer than an hour to learn how to administer them and even that is being generous.

But you're definitely correct in that it does not happen often that doctors give shots especially in a hospital setting.

EDIT: for intravenous injections I would agree with you as nurses (depending on which specialty) are a lot more experienced and do this much more regularly than doctors.

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ceelo71 t1_j50ahuf wrote

Agreed, physicians are definitely capable of giving an IM shot, but rarely do. This may have been a thing a long time ago, but is not done (at least in the US) currently. Source - have been a practicing physician for twenty years.

It’s like starting an IV - the only docs that are good at that are anesthesiologists. They even know how to set up the pumps, mix IV meds, etc. if someone were crashing and needed an IV and infusion started, and I was the only one there to do it, the prognosis would be poor.

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dryingsocks t1_j50u81l wrote

I don't doubt that nurses could do it, but here in Germany vaccinations are administered by doctors, even during the pandemic. Never got one by anyone else

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ceelo71 t1_j5157gy wrote

That’s an interesting difference in practice. If a patient needs an IV bolus of a medication, does the physician also do that or is it delegated to a nurse?

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