Question by Faye: Why did my nurse refuse to give me my injection?
I have been booked in to visit the nurse for two week now to have my HEP B jab. I had rang up to tell them this a week prior to my appointment and they said it was fine. I really needed this injection for my job! The nurse has turned around and said I am not allowed to give you this injection!!!!!!!!
I then rang up other doctors in my area and they all said ‘yes you are allowed…’

I AM MAD. :@

Best answer:

Answer by Jacob
Are you sure they were a registered nurse (certified RN) and not a medical assistant? It is likely they were actually what is called a “medical assistant” and not a registered nurse or nurse practitioner.

They often wear the same scrubs as an RN and are often incorrectly referred to as nurses by people who see them and by staff who forget who specifically they are referring to. Medical assistants perform many of the more basic duties often assigned to nurses that do not require as much training or certification to perform – such as clerical tasks, repeating instructions to a patient that were given by a doctor, performing routine room prep tasks in between patients, and prepare and administer some therapies but often only while supervised.

In reference specifically to injections, a medical assistant can only provide them if ordered AND supervised by a doctor. The doctor does not have to literally be standing over them, but must be present in the office. If they are otherwise unavailable and certainly if they did not leave sufficiently specific instructions, a medical assistant is not legally allowed to administer that injection. This holds true even if the patient is established and already scheduled for a specific procedure – the doctor must be “present” and specifically order the medical assistant to perform the injection.

Some states have even stricter laws (Nevada) such that a medical assistant can be jailed for giving injections. Some states have or have attempted to pass laws allowing medical assistants to perform certain routine injections once properly trained; I’m not sure if any have passed but the doctor’s own insurance as well as he office/institution policy would likely still prohibit certain procedures as long as some state they operated in did.

But if that’s the case and they had only an MA who, for one reason or another, was not cleared or authorized to provide vaccinations – then the reason you didn’t get your shot was their HR person screwed up doing the schedule.

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