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L0cked4fun t1_j4zal5q wrote

Reply to comment by firstfrontiers 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

Gonna hop on the top comment early to let people know not to let them jab your shoulder. I am taller than the person giving me my flu shot and it resulted in a weird angle that lead to them piercing my rotator cuff. Ended up with 2 months of rehab before the pain subsided.

I realized they cleaned a place high on my arm, but no one ever warns people to make sure it's in the deltoid* and not higher. Edit: wrong muscle

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HandsOnGeek t1_j4zbv1x wrote

The injection is not supposed to be into the bicep. It's supposed to be into the deltoid.

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L0cked4fun t1_j4zdm0h wrote

Thanks for that, the important part is no shoulder lol.

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UrbanSpartan t1_j50d44r wrote

The deltoid is the shoulder muscle. Anything 2ml and less can be appropriately administered in the deltoid. It would be highly unusual if not impossible for them to enter into the joint space with the needles used for a IM injection. Additionally, even if they did it would have no effect on your rotator cuff, which is just a group of 4 muscles. Its not one physical structure like most people tend to assume. You need at least a 1.5 inch needle to enter into the glenohumeral space, the needles in IM injections are usually 1 inch or less and they are not going all the way through l. I'm 6'5" and I've never had an issue getting an IM shoulder injection. I also do joint space injections all the time and you have to be very specific in where you aim and how to even enter into the space as the acromion blocks most of the joint off.

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HandsOnGeek t1_j50vd2g wrote

You see that's the thing, the Deltoid is the shoulder muscle. You definitely want the injection into the shoulder, because that is where the Deltoid muscle is. Just, into the muscle, not anywhere else like the joint capsule or whatever.

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dryingsocks t1_j4zpulu wrote

you don't get to sit down for your shots? sorry that happened to you. I usually assume doctors know their anatomy

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ceelo71 t1_j504e5m wrote

Honestly doctors don’t give shots. Nurses are much better trained and I would trust them over a doctor

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LiquidPizza t1_j507jdq wrote

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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dryingsocks t1_j50u81l wrote

I don't doubt that nurses could do it, but here in Germany vaccinations are administered by doctors, even during the pandemic. Never got one by anyone else

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ceelo71 t1_j5157gy wrote

That’s an interesting difference in practice. If a patient needs an IV bolus of a medication, does the physician also do that or is it delegated to a nurse?

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L0cked4fun t1_j4zq0lu wrote

We sat, I'm 6'3, they were less that 5' so it was still an odd lean. It was a pharmacy tech instead of a doc. Some areas trained them for vaccines due to the sudden demand.

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dryingsocks t1_j4zq6by wrote

p sure it had to be a doctor here. I'm pretty tall (almost 2m) the person giving the injection always stood during my jabs

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[deleted] t1_j505wqx wrote

[removed]

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becauseTexas t1_j508u7l wrote

The pharmacy tech giving shots is a new thing spurred on by COVID. Before then it was always the pharmacist.

Am pharmacist

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Chasman1965 t1_j50c5sx wrote

Not sure who gave me my flu shots or shingles shots pre-Covid. I presumed a pharm tech, but it may have been the pharmacist.

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Piratedan200 t1_j5190eq wrote

Every time I've gotten a shot at a pharmacy, it's been the pharmacist that administered it. I didn't think techs were allowed to.

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etoilech t1_j50s5sb wrote

Which is why we make people sit down and landmark correctly. Up to 2ml in the deltoid. Find the acromion process and palpate the deltoid. Use the z-track method of injection.

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