Becoming a vaccinator

I volunteered as just a steward for the St John's Ambulance, but gave up. All I would be doing is standing out in the cold, telling people where to go, but, no, they need to know my employment history, my sexuality, whether I identify as the sex I was born as etc etc. 8 sections!
I genuinely try and not be a 'the world's gone mad' sort of person. But this is ridiculous.

Sigh... not vaccine for..... vaccinator

One of my closest friends is a retired nursing sister and she also volunteered to be a vaccine for. She completed the first batch of forms (14 pages I think she said) and did the online application. She was then sent another batch of forms and had an online interview, which went well. She was then asked to provide documentation to show her qualifications, including that she'd recently completed diversity training courses and child protection courses. As she's been retired for 9 years, she couldn't and was then informed that she'd have to complete those, online, before she could go further. She gave up.

I understand Liam Fox, who is a doctor, has raised the problem with the government, the PM agreed with him and has asked the relevant government department to reduce the red tape

At one point when I was working for the local council, every single employee had to undergo ‘training’ in Equality and Diversity and Health and Safety.

It was honestly a joke. Each took a max of about 20 minutes online, and consisted of a series of questions with a choice of 4 tick-box answers.
If you ticked the wrong one, it came up with a cheery, ‘Not quite right, try again!’

I never did get around to finding out how much the council had paid an outside agency for this, at a time when they were endlessly bleating about a lack of funds, just so that they in turn could tick a box to say we’d all been ‘trained’.

I retired from teaching, earlier than I'd planned, so sick to the back teeth of all the red tape.

Ticking boxes and jumping through hoops, meeting regulations for the nth time etc.

It's a shame I wasted so much time and effort - not teaching!

The friend who was my SIL’s best man is a senior Heart Surgeon in a large teaching hospital.
He offered to be a vaccinator in his off-duty time ,what little he has of it, and had to undergo a five-hour training course in how to administer an injection.

I agree, it's farcical. I've returned to the NHS after a 5 year break. The rigmarole of on line learning beforehand was tedious to say the least and only about 10% of it relevant to the job - I also undertook the radicalisation bit!!

@ForgornLeghorn, I wish you’d write a pithy letter to the Times about this. As well as to your own MP, of course.

The training for potential vaccinators has been reduced I believe. I certainly hope so!

GagaJo

Welcome to a teachers world. All that tedious training, annually. I have only ever found ONE safeguarding training session interesting and useful. That was back in the days of having wholeschool training days with a speaker.

The online reading/answering questions is mind numbing.

There IS a hack though, if anyone is interested. Open the PDF page to read, then also open the questions. In the PDF reading, open an F4 search box, and search the key word or phrase of each question. Fill the answers in as you go.

Reduces the time by about two 3rds.

Thank you soooo much for this! I work in education and had to spend two days filling these in before I could work with the students. Can they not produce a shorter yearly update set so you don’t have to redo EVERY year with at least one new topic added. This year it was Covid Awareness.

Big Bertha, this sounds exactly like the training I was given to be a doorstep track and tracer. I totally lost the will to live when I got to the adult protection module. I’ve been involved with child protection issues for over 20 years and never encountered training like this in its complexity. This was all for a doorstep interviewer.
THEN I had a look at the 5 different computer programs I was expected to work with. The on line trainer was totally bored presenting it and without the actual programs available it was totally incomprehensible.
I have excellent local knowledge from chasing and catching up with my previous service users (offenders) around the vicinity as well as years of experience trying to pursued them to comply with court orders. All experience which would have been invaluable. I gave up with the application.

FoghornLeghorn I had a contact from the Telegraph the other day. The journalist had misunderstood me on another site thinking that I had volunteered as a vaccinator but, not heard anything. I had actually volunteered as a guinea pig for the vaccination However, she was interested in interviewing people who had volunteered to give vaccinations but, were struggling with the process,

I believe she has been in contact with the NHSRF.

Im in this process as well. After 35 years of nursing I do have some skills and knowledge but as I retired some time ago I expected to undertake a refresher course but 18 on line courses have really tried me. It took me all morning to do 3 but i really wasnt expecting deradicalisation training and child protection or cyber fraud. Im not sure if I will get through the remining 15 courses

“ Somebody in government really needs to get a grip”

Is this the first oxymoron of 2021?

It’s been like this for years but any attempt to untangle the red tape is met with outrage at the interference!

The “training” working in the local surgery in the 90s was all based on a single plan with very slight adaptions. The company owner ran the classes and by the third course I realised it was a huge con. Within three years she bought a house in Florida. I did complain but no one dares to rock the boat. Admin are all powerful.

In 2000 I was offered a job in a dialysis unit. I had to travel in the rush hour to attend two weeks training. Only one two hour session had any relevance at all.

I was interested in volunteering locally but now you are expected to complete an encyclopaedia sized application form, references - fair enough, then undertake a training course for weeks on end for the most simple basic jobs.

Exactly and sorry to be flippant

The Sun newspaper is running a campaign to recruit members of the public as a 'jab army'. They obviously have no idea about the training process.

MyDH says he would like to do this as he is very good at darts. He would also be great for social distancing as he would have to stand several feet away. ???

There was a retired woman doctor on Radio 4 this morning complaining of just the same things, ie training modules on FGM and radicalisation etc. She said it had taken her 25 e-mails so far and I don't think she had been accepted yet. Such nonsense. How long would it take a competent person to re-jig the on-line training programme to cover the basics only? Surely there will be other fully qualified staff on duty to keep an eye out for anyone potentially at risk from either FGM or radicalisation?

It was pointed out in the paper today nursing homes have qualified nursing staff who could vaccinate their residents, who would probably be more at ease too, so a GP need not be involved. Care homes are different.

Some of these training modules are very important if you are working in NHS, education and social care but the point is that the UK needs people to volunteer/apply for vaccinators posts/return to work as a vaccinator on short term (could be up to a year) contracts to give vaccinations. Study days on Covid vaccinations and anaphylaxis like nurses get annually with the flu vaccination programme are what is required. Seriously you are with the patient for 5 minutes tops (unless they have a reaction which is not usually immediate) - clean hands, ask patient to sit, explain what it is and possible side effects, ask permission to administer, ask which arm and expose the arm, clean hands, draw up and give injection, ask patient to apply pressure, record you have given it including where and batch number, apply plaster if necessary, ask patient to sit in waiting area for 10-15 minutes, clean hands, move on to next patient. Sounds like a lot but really isn't when you have been trained. There is no time to discuss radicalisation or FGM as most surgeries give 3 minute appointments so it is always very busy for the staff.

Luckygirl

There must be some way of streamlining this training to take account that all you will be doing is standing in a surgery or wherever and sticking a needle in someone's arm; and only teaching what is relevant: this is an arm would probably be enough.

I am not averse to the safeguarding training that takes place - I am a school governor and have been through a fair bit if this. But having to go through anti radicalisation training to stick a needle in someone's arm is beyond the pale.

I agree. It's right that any concerns should be passed on. For example, if somebody notices bruising or burn marks, nobody should turn a blind eye, but surely it's enough to have a procedure in place, whereby concerns should reported. Nobody needs full training to do that.

Retired doctors are suffering the same bureaucracy when volunteering. For effective vaccinators, knowing the contra indications, how and where to put the needle, and how to deal with anaphylaxis, plus of course cross infection should be enough.

That is truly dreadful FoghornLeghorn, and I sympathise .
I had an experience the year before last when I tried to become a hospital volunteer under a campaign started by the Daily Mail.
They soon instructed me to report to my local hospital, but what followed was months and months of complete inefficiency, lost paperwork, many phone calls, and inteviews with smartly dressed young ladies, at least four of them, presumably hospital management.
In the end it became so frustrating that I backed out, sadly.
And I did tell them, politely, what I thought of their sheer inability to sort out someone who was keen to become helpful.