Can I sign off on my own immunizations?

[wonderbee, BSN, RN]

I'm the only nurse in my department and will be administering immunizations to staff tomorrow. I just realized no one is available to vaccinate me. So can I sign off on my own vaccinations?

[LA_StudentNurse]

I will ask you a question. If you are a distant learning student and need a proctor for tests...could you proctor yourself? No...you cannot sign off on yourself. What say you all.

Best to everyone

[jschut, BSN, RN]

No. I don't see how that would be possible.

[caliotter3]

You could be lying about the procedure. Most people wouldn't administer something to themselves if it is possible, they would just lie about it. Someone I knew used to forge something like this because she had access to the forms. She thought nothing of it. But I wondered what would happen if she was ever found out. Wouldn't do it myself.

[TiffyRN, BSN, PhD]

I don't think you can but interesting detail about my childhood immunization records;

When I started my first nursing job there was a lot of drama about what vaccines I did or did not have. My mother sent me my documents; old passports and my vaccine records from Brazil (where I lived as a child). All the shot records were in Portuguese but many of the vaccine names were easily understood. A few years later I was looking in detail at those records and I realized; "that's my mother's handwriting". I asked her about it and she said she wasn't the one giving the vaccines but she was instructed back in the day to write down the vaccines on the dates they were given.

[VivaLasViejas, ASN, RN]

Being the only licensed nurse in some facilities, I've given myself flu shots and documented them in my own employee records. However, I wouldn't have done it with a TB test, UA, or any required immunizations; I simply went to the local occupational health department and got them done.

[BluegrassRN]

I gave my own flu shot this year, and signed off on it. I didn't ask if this was okay; I just did it.

[aura_of_laura]

I gave myself my TB test this year. It helps that I'm the employee health nurse, so I'm the only one who sees the records Sometimes its an issue of practicality. Are the vaccines mandatory for employment? If so, you may want someone to co-sign to verify you did administer it.