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Administration of the flu vaccination: required skills and knowledge

12 November 2020
Clinical
02 November 2020
Volume 29 · Issue 20

‘Flu season’ is a well-established annual occurrence in primary care services, with a range of practitioners administering vaccinations against the flu virus, including district and community nurses, practice nurses, GPs and pharmacists.

Influenza is a common and infectious virus, far more severe than the common cold. According to the University of Oxford Vaccine Knowledge Project (2020), complications from influenza lead to tens of thousands of hospital stays and an average of more than 600 deaths a year in the UK. Several unpleasant symptoms can present in a case of influenza (Box 1).

Mahase (2020) highlights the concerns raised by GPs to cope with the 2020-2021 winter demand for flu vaccinations, with up to 30 million people included in the expansion of what will be the most comprehensive flu vaccination programme in national history (Public Health England (PHE), 2020a).

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