Fitness to Administer Influenza Vaccine by Pharmacists in the UAE

Abstract

Backgrounds The new United Arab Emirates (UAE) drug law permits pharmacists to administer medicines, including vaccines, after proper training. Pharmacists in many other countries have been successfully administering vaccinations for many years but not in the UAE. The objective of this study is to assess the competence of pharmacists who participated in one of the first influenza vaccination training programs in the UAE. Methods A pre-post interventional quasi-experimental study was designed to measure the beliefs and knowledge of pharmacists before and after participating in the influenza vaccination training. Skills were measured only after the training. The training included 2 lectures followed by hands-on skills-based vaccine administration training. The pharmacists' intramuscular injection skills were assessed using Objective Structured Clinical Examination stations. The Student t test and analysis of variance statistical tests were conducted using SPSS software version 26 to determine the difference in knowledge, skill, and beliefs. Results Of 26 enrolled candidates, 16 have participated and completed the program, all the final participants achieved the passing score on the posttest and their scores were higher compared with the pretest. Participants' beliefs of knowledge and the knowledge itself improved significantly after the training. Scores of Objective Structured Clinical Examination stations were consistently high for all the participants. Conclusions A comprehensive training with achievement of learning outcomes is a proof of fitness to practice influenza vaccination, an important new skill for pharmacists in the UAE. All the study participants successfully completed the training program, achieved the passing score and showed a fitness to administer flu vaccine.