New law allows Oregon dentists to administer all vaccines

[TexasTowelie]

PORTLAND — A bill to allow dentists in Oregon to administer vaccines to patients has been signed into law.

The Oregonian/OregonLive reports Oregon is the first state in the country to allow dentists to administer any vaccine available at a primary care doctor’s office.

Most people may not get their measles, polio and tetanus shots from the dentist, but Oregon Health & Science University School of Dentistry Dean Phillip Marucha says they might want vaccines relevant to oral health such as HPV.

He says a large percentage of new oral cancer diagnoses are linked to HPV, a sexually transmitted infection that can also cause cervical cancer and genital warts.

Read more: https://www.registerguard.com/news/20190509/new-law-allows-oregon-dentists-to-administer-all-vaccines

[hlthe2b]

1. Interesting and I'm all for increasing ready acess to vaccines...the more properly trained HCW

staff, the better.

Still, from the standpoint of who is most readily ABLE and practiced to administer an injection/vaccination, though, it is rarely physicians (out of practice--"that's what nurses are for, right?" ) or pharmacists (with some exceptions had only limited training and are generally so nervous it takes forever for them to actually administer it). Dentists administer local anesthetics, but they would be scarcely more practiced on injections than most physicians.

So, who wins if you want a properly administered immunization (as pain-free as possible) and have the choice? Nurses, of course (and PAs and related) and Veterinarians. The latter are too busy with their own practices and caring for animals, except in the face of a major national emergency where many state public health plans have incorporated their assistance (e.g., bioterrorism). So, nurses win the accolades!

Bottom line, though, whoever administers, get the damned vaccines! Speaking to all the adults, too.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

2. Interesting factoid about nurses.

My mother, who was born in 1916 became a nurse. It was a 3 year RN program back then. She probably graduated in 1937 or so. Back then nurses didn't give shots. The mostly did hands on kinds of care that nurse assistants who maybe have a few months training do today. Bed baths, delivering meal trays, that sort of thing.

She finally learned to give shots in 1962, when she was hired by a hospital that needed her to do that. And of course, at some point before then nursing had changed enormously.

After she retired she continued to give flu vaccinations at vaccination clinics. She loved it.