From now on, nurses will be able to vaccinate their adult patients without medical prescriptions.
Vaccination now becomes easier. In effect, nurses can now administer all vaccines from the age of 16, and this “without prior medical prescription”. In total, this new prerogative concerns fifteen vaccines. Pharmacists will still be authorized to vaccinate those aged 16 and over under presentation of a medical prescription.
Vaccines that nurses can administer
A series of texts published on Saturday April 23 in the Official Journal came to reveal that nurses can now administer vaccines without a medical prescription to patients aged 16 and over. The decision thus follows a favorable opinion submitted by the High Authority for Health (HAS) 3 months ago.
In detail, we learn that nurses are now “qualified to administer, without prior medical prescription” vaccines against around fifteen pathologies. More specifically, this new extension of “vaccination skills” concerns vaccines against: influenza, rabies, diphtheria, tetanus, poliomyelitis, whooping cough, human papillomaviruses, invasive pneumococcal infections, hepatitis A and B as well as meningococcal serogroups A, B, C, Y and W.
Regarding pharmacists, they are still “authorized to administer” certain vaccines to people aged 16 and over, but on presentation of a medical prescription. The Minister of Health Olivier Véran, notably clarified to Philippe Besset, president of the Federation of Pharmaceutical Unions of France (FSPF), that “to be able to prescribe them, we are awaiting an opinion from the drug agency”.
Faced with these changes concerning non-prescription vaccination for nurses, Patrick Chamboredon, President of the Order of Nurses, declared: “This is a first step towards more autonomy for the profession and, for our fellow citizens , the guarantee of enhanced access to prevention”.