Injection Adminstration

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I work in a doctor's office in Maryland. I am trying to find out if there are any guidelines or regulations that dictate who is able to administer injections? Does it have to be a nurse, or can it be a medical assistant or even someone trained and under supervision of a licensed person? I tried contacting the Maryland board of physicians, but they were unable to help me. Any feedback is appreciated!

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I cannot speak for the rules in Maryland as I am in Washington State, but our laws are that MA's can give injections with a written order (not verbal) , as long as it is not for a controlled substance (pain meds, testosterone) and it cannot be from a multi-dose vial except for vaccines. In Washington MA's are further broken down by certification and this plays a roll in what duties they can do. The information regarding "authorized duties" in Washington is not found through the board of physicians or nursing commission, but is actually found in the Washington State Legislature website. Perhaps you should look at the Maryland Legislature website and look up MA's, LPN's, RN's there to answer your questions about who can do what?

Marjie

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Here is a link for you. MSMA Regulations.

Marjie

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Specializes in orthopedic/trauma, Informatics, diabetes.

Pharmacists can give flu at most local drug stores (?) I am not sure decided that. What if the person goes into anaphalaxis? I guess they have the access to the epi.

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Specializes in Nurse Leader specializing in Labor & Delivery.
Pharmacists can give flu at most local drug stores (?) I am not sure decided that. What if the person goes into anaphalaxis? I guess they have the access to the epi.

Pharmacists have doctoral degrees in pharmacology. I'm sure they're quite capable of giving a shot and handling anaphylaxis. If an MA can give a flu shot, I'm quite confident that a PharmD could figure it out.

Doesn't seem like a very cost-effective way to utilize a pharmacist, though.

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Specializes in Pedi.

Anaphylaxis to a vaccine is a VERY rare event. That said, I am quite certain that a pharmacist would be able to administer an EpiPen and call 911. And I'm sure that pharmacies that are providing flu shots have protocols in place for this.

I've never worked somewhere where we utilized MAs but I've had MAs give me immunizations before.

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Specializes in Mental Health, Gerontology, Palliative.

In NZ a vaccines can only be administered by a doctor ,registered nurse who has a vaccinators certificate or a pharmacist

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