The purpose of the TTW is to create a team of pharmacist-vaccinators to help the Union health ministry in emergency situations. India witnessed an emergency situation for vaccination during the Covid-19 pandemic period
The Indian Pharmaceutical Association (IPA) will kick off an intensive ‘Train-the-Trainer Workshop’ (TTW) at JSS College of Pharmacy attached to the JSS Medical College in Mysore on May 23 to build a pool of competent trainer-vaccinators who will be able to further train the practicing pharmacists in administering vaccines to adult people.
The purpose of the TTW is to create a team of pharmacist-vaccinators to help the Union health ministry in emergency situations. India witnessed an emergency situation for vaccination during the Covid-19 pandemic period. When a practicing pharmacist turns to a vaccinator by training, he gets the skill and knowledge about vaccines and administration in addition to his professional knowledge in medicines, said Dr T V Narayana, President of the IPA.
Talking to Pharmabiz about the plan of the association in making pharmacists as vaccinators, Dr. Narayana said the IPA hadd invited two internationally acclaimed vaccine trainers from Australia to teach the pharmacists the skill and knowledge in jabbing vaccines on the human body. The Australian trainers will arrive in Bengaluru on May 20, and will be in the country for one month until the phase-to-phase training programmes are over. The TTW program will be conducted in another three centres also, one in north India, one in north east and one in Ahmedabad or Mumbai.
“Everybody must understand one thing that this program of the IPA is not aimed to train the practicing pharmacists at the hospitals to administer injections to patients that is not in our agenda, but to train them to become vaccinators as the government of India has included pharmacists into the list of approved vaccinators. For this the pharmacists need training that we are providing.”
— Dr T V Narayana, President of the IPA
IPA has written to the Indian Health Ministry about its plan for training the pharmacists ready for inoculation and the ministry responded positively by stating that the pharmacists were already in the list of approved vaccinators along with doctors and nurses. Accordingly, seeking suggestions on this project the association has contacted the WHO and the International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP), Both the organisations have promised all their support and shared guidelines on how to start the project in association with the government. He said the Australian trainers are coming to India on the advice of the international organisations.
“It is a gradual process and will take some time. Right now the pharmacists are not allowed to administer injections to patients in hospitals. What we are planning is to train the practicing pharmacists and the Pharm D graduates in administering vaccines only to the adult persons as the children are under the control of the doctors and nurses. The pharmacists will not interfere in these matters, they are targeted for turning into vaccinators for immunization programmes of the government. This will help the pharmacists in the community pharmacies also for giving vaccine shots to adult people in their peripheries. “Everybody must understand one thing that this program of the IPA is not aimed to train the practicing pharmacists at the hospitals to administer injections to patients that is not in our agenda, but to train them to become vaccinators as the government of India has included pharmacists into the list of approved vaccinators. For this the pharmacists need training that we are providing,” clarified Dr. Narayana.
*******************************************************************
Readers
These are extraordinary times. All of us have to rely on high-impact, trustworthy journalism. And this is especially true of the Indian Diaspora. Members of the Indian community overseas cannot be fed with inaccurate news.
Pravasi Samwad is a venture that has no shareholders. It is the result of an impassioned initiative of a handful of Indian journalists spread around the world. We have taken the small step forward with the pledge to provide news with accuracy, free from political and commercial influence. Our aim is to keep you, our readers, informed about developments at ‘home’ and across the world that affect you.
Please help us to keep our journalism independent and free.
In these difficult times, to run a news website requires finances. While every contribution, big or small, will makes a difference, we request our readers to put us in touch with advertisers worldwide. It will be a great help.
For more information: pravasisamwad00@gmail.com