Hi Stephanie,
Under the Texas Medical Board - MA's can provide vaccines to any age as long as there is a written standing order for the organization, typically all under the CMO written or reviewed policy for this procedure. I've shared the resource below and highlighted the area specific to this discussion:
5 Sec. 157.002. GENERAL DELEGATION OF ADMINISTRATION AND PROVISION OF 36 DANGEROUS DRUGS. (a) In this section: 37 (1) "Administering" means the direct application of a drug to the body of a patient by injection, 38 inhalation, ingestion, or any other means. 39 (2) "Provision" means the supply of one or more unit doses of a drug, medicine, or dangerous drug. 40 (b) A physician may delegate to any qualified and properly trained person acting under the physician's 41 supervision the act of administering or providing dangerous drugs in the physician's office, as ordered by 42 the physician, that are used or required to meet the immediate needs of the physician's patients. The 43 administration or provision of the dangerous drugs must be performed in compliance with laws relating to 44 the practice of medicine and state and federal laws relating to those dangerous drugs. 45 …… 46 (e) The administration or provision of the drugs may be delegated through a physician's order, a standing 47 medical order, a standing delegation order, or another order defined by the board. 48 …… 49 Sec. 157.005. PERFORMANCE OF DELEGATED ACT NOT PRACTICING WITHOUT MEDICAL 50 LICENSE. A person to whom a physician delegates the performance of a medical act is not considered to 51 be practicing medicine without a license by performing the medical act unless the person acts with 52 knowledge that the delegation and the action taken under the delegation is a violation of this subtitle. 53 Acts 1999, 76th Leg., ch. 388, Sec. 1, eff. Sept. 1, 1999. 54 Sec. 157.006. LIMITATION ON BOARD RULES REGARDING DELEGATION. The board shall 55 promote a physician's exercise of professional judgment to decide which medical acts may be safely 56 delegated by not adopting rules containing, except as absolutely necessary, global prohibitions or 57 restrictions on the delegation of medical acts. 58 Acts 1999, 76th Leg., ch. 388, Sec. 1, eff. Sept. 1, 1999.
With that, I would suggest making sure your MAs are competent in all age vaccine administration (typically PEDI vaccines can be a little "scary" for new MAs). Proper training on the CDC guidelines and VFC program are specific to this as well.
I would not single out any vaccine and train all vaccines that your site(s) have in stock, it will only help the efficiency of your practice to include MAs in this process, and not single out the LVNs with a task MAs are trained to do in their programs.
Hope this helps!
Sincerely,
Brianna
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Brianna Rivera, MSN, RN
Rivera Healthcare Consulting, LLC
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Original Message:
Sent: 10-07-2024 12:28
From: Stephanie Zollinger
Subject: MA administering vaccines in ambulatory clinics
I work at a county hospital in Texas that has Community Health Clinics. LVNs are currently administering all vaccines, last year we rolled out training and comps for MA to do flu vaccines administration on patient 14 years and older. We are looking to expand this to all single antigen vaccines on patients younger. I have 2 questions
- Does your practice have any age restrictions for MAs given vaccines?
- Would you suggest single antigens vaccines only for this 2nd phase of roll out?
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Stephanie Zollinger BSN, RN
Fort Worth, Texas
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