<p>Should retail pharmacists be forced to give vaccinations?
Background: friend worked for a big chain drugstore and he has a severe phobia about needles an shots. During the training to give vaccinations, he passed out cold when he tried to inject someone. They fired him. Should a person be forced to overcome something like this? It would be akin to them telling me I have to handle snakes on a daily basis. LOL.</p>
<p>There are other areas of pharmacy available for folks who can’t or won’t give shots. He should confer with his school of pharmacy about jobs thag can accommodate his inabilith to give shots. </p>
<p>People in a profession limit their options when they are unable or unwilling to do something like injections.</p>
<p>A fear of giving vaccinations is something that he can have therapy for, or he can get a completely different position.
But in his current position, it is part of the job.</p>
<p>If it is in the job description, then the company has the right to dismiss him if he refuses to give injections. He can try to find another position that doesn’t have that requirement. </p>
<p>If you were hired as a reptile expert, you might be expected to handle snakes on a daily basis.</p>
<p>It’s conceivable that if the phobia is related to a diagnosable medical condition, he could be protected by the Americans with Disabilty Act–requiring accomodation. The Act is vague about this, and many phobia cases wind up being hashed out in litigation. </p>
<p>There’s a case going on trial where a teacher who claimed a phobia of small children was transferred from a high school to a middle school and fired because of her claimed inability to work with that population. She claims she was transferred to teach Soanish because of her speaking out against the elimination of French instruction at her high school. </p>
<p>In another case, accommodations where made for a woman who was phobic about fellow employees’ service dogs.</p>
<p>I think if the pharmacist has been a pharmacist longer than the new trend of pharmacists giving injections, then they should be “grandfathered” into not having to do it.</p>
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<p>Giving injections is part of the job. If friend can’t do the job, he needs to find another.
Off-topic, I’m thrilled to get my flu shot at the pharmacy instead of paying for a Dr visit.</p>
<p>There are other areas of pharmacy that this individual could consider if he doesn’t want to try therapy to overcome phobia.</p>
<p>S got his flu shot at a pharmacy as his doctor’s office was out of vaccine.</p>
<p>Pharmacy contains a minute clinic, but no, he couldn’t get the shot from the nurse there—he had go into the stockroom (real sanitary there I’m sure) and get the shot from a pharmacist, who did not seem comfortable doing the job.</p>
<p>S was kinda creeped out by the whole affair.</p>
<p>My D in law is finishing up her pharmD education this year by doing clinical rotations. I am certain that part of her training included being able to give injections. Of course that is not necessarily a part of the job in all settings, but current Pharmacy students are apparently trained to do this.</p>
<p>I am not in favor of a pharmacy giving injections. What’s next-- footcare maintenance, ear wax, skin tag removal, etc. etc.? No wonder the lines at the pharmacy counter are getting longer and consequently one of the main reasons why I switched to Express Scripts, even though CVS is a short walk from my home.</p>
<p>Even the ADA, assuming a disability under its definitions, requires that the individual be able to perform the essential elements of the job with the accommodations. If giving injections is considered by the employer to be an “essential element” of the job, then the employer cannot be required to exempt the phobic from it.</p>
<p>Additionally, a disability is usually defined as one that interferes with “activities of daily living.” (Remember, the teacher in the example above is now suing, not necessarily winning.) Giving injections is not an activity of daily living (although dealing with children might be!).</p>
<p>Not every diagnosable condition is a “disability” under the ADA.</p>
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<p>Should an airline pilot be forced to fly airplanes? What if the poor guy has a severe phobia flying? </p>
<p>People who cannot perform one of the basic duties of the job should move on and find a different job.</p>
<p>Yes, but flying has *always * been vital to the role of being a pilot. Giving injections has traditionally been the job of a nurse or a physician.</p>
<p>And, while I really like my pharmacist, I’ll stick with my doctor, thanks. (pun intended)</p>
<p>Although I floated the ADA idea, it was only a theory; but give a plaintiff’s attorney half a chance and you don’t know what they might latch onto. </p>
<p>That said, I like the idea of getting my shots at a pharmacy. No making an appointment for my doctor. No office visit fee. No sitting around for an hour in the waiting room with sick people coughing on me. </p>
<p>Seriously, it’s the future that uncomplicated medical care–shots, simple well care exams–is going to be provided by people other than MDs. It’s cheaper. Let’s reserve the MDs for situations where their expertise makes a difference.</p>
<p>Not meant to be political… But if a pharmacist can legally refuse to give someone a plan B or a RT inhibitor, why can s/he be fired because of his/her phobia of injections? There is something wrong with this picture!</p>
<p>I don’t think doctors are going to just sit back and let pharmacists steal their business. It goes way beyond just administering flu shots. There is a long list of vaccines that can and will be included down the road.</p>
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<p>They cannot be “forced” to do anything. They have a right to refuse, and the company has a right to terminate their employment for that refusal. Each of them has choices and no one can “force” anyone to do anything. </p>
<p>He could always work at a hospital. Our pharmacists never had to touch a patient and rarely ever even came in contact with them unless they were present at a code, in which case they were simply there to make sure the drugs were there in the proper quantity and form.</p>
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<p>If I claimed I have a phobia about getting HIV from a needle stick and refused to start IVs or give injections to patients with HIV, I would be fired. I don’t see how this is any different. Giving injections is part of this particular job description. What he is experiencing is a vaso vagal reaction which can be usually be managed with therapy. It usually gets better over time as the person gets used to doing it. If he is refusing to work on this, I can’t imagine why the employer should be required to keep him and the others there must take up his slack for this “disability.”</p>
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<p>I’ve never known a doctor who gave vaccines. It has always been the nurse or a medical assistant.</p>
<p>^The nurses and assistants are working for the doctors and/or their medical corporations.</p>