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LiquidPizza t1_j507jdq wrote

Reply to comment by ceelo71 in Is there any difference in efficacy when a vaccine is administered somewhere other than the upper arm (e.g. on the foot)? by MercurioLeCher

Doctors are perfectly capable of giving an intramuscular injection. It doesn't take longer than an hour to learn how to administer them and even that is being generous.

But you're definitely correct in that it does not happen often that doctors give shots especially in a hospital setting.

EDIT: for intravenous injections I would agree with you as nurses (depending on which specialty) are a lot more experienced and do this much more regularly than doctors.

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ceelo71 t1_j50ahuf wrote

Agreed, physicians are definitely capable of giving an IM shot, but rarely do. This may have been a thing a long time ago, but is not done (at least in the US) currently. Source - have been a practicing physician for twenty years.

It’s like starting an IV - the only docs that are good at that are anesthesiologists. They even know how to set up the pumps, mix IV meds, etc. if someone were crashing and needed an IV and infusion started, and I was the only one there to do it, the prognosis would be poor.

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