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Hurdles remain to getting ex-nurses involved in vaccine rollout

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So funny. Nurses don't want to be part of the disaster known as the Japan Olympics.

3 ( +15 / -12 )

Nothing to do with the Olympics!

2 ( +10 / -8 )

Gloves?

-2 ( +5 / -7 )

@Elvis is here

That's right, ex-nurses, put the babies in a locker at the station and get to work. No blaming poor administration for the errors and delays, it's clearly all your fault for having babies.

17 ( +21 / -4 )

No part time or flexible work, no help with child care, no indication of how long the job will last and the authorities looking at them as a nuisance rather than an underused resource. No wonder so many nurses leave the job, never to return in Japan. This is a typical example of Japanese work practices.

22 ( +24 / -2 )

Japan needs to learn how to be flexible. Work is just work. A person is still a person anytime of the day - able bodied and can work anywhere anytime.

16 ( +17 / -1 )

Perhaps the Nurses think they’re being asked to ‘run more “*hurdles”? *More unnecessary “overwork” for the already “overworked”.

3 ( +4 / -1 )

She also wants to work at a clinic rather than a group vaccination site due to fear of being infected by the virus, but so far has been unable to find a job that meets her requirements.

At this point the J-Gov't should accept who they can get, even if it is for a few hours. A person giving shots for 3 hours is better than not having a person at all...

12 ( +13 / -1 )

"I could help if I were able to give shots at a local clinic in the mornings,"

Another way to see the problem is that the government is not giving enough facilities for people to give or receive the shots. It had a year to prepare and develop a system such as the one used in many other countries giving the shots at multiple small sites around the city, that would solve the problem expressed by the nurse.

10 ( +14 / -4 )

Boy, after this debacle my opinion of Japan is altered forever. So much for efficiency and attention to detail. Bunch of buffoons running this place.

17 ( +18 / -1 )

Maybe those ex-nurses have a conscience and remember their Hippocratic Oath which commands to help the ill and not cause harm, and to never give a deadly drug? Vaccinating with this untested substance tramples the Oath.

-13 ( +4 / -17 )

i won’t get the vaccine unless the place administering it has a fully equipped ICU with doctor to save you just in case of bad reaction

-11 ( +5 / -16 )

I don't get it ! Are we at 1M per day or not ?

6 ( +6 / -0 )

Slightly off topic, but is ‘ex’ used in a positive/neutral way in the UK and is that where Japan has taken the usage from? I see it used a lot on (English) Japanese news sites (even had a Japanese (English teacher) coworker using it). In American English we only use it for someone with whom we parted ways badly.

-4 ( +1 / -5 )

Thousands of pharmacies over here in the States are doing shots, and they use pharmacists, not RNs.

6 ( +6 / -0 )

Because one of my best friends is also my doctor, I know quite a few of his former nurses.

Some have been contacted to help, they said they were willing under a few conditions.

They got their Vaccines before they start, this was refused told they would only be vaccinated after they officially started.

They asked the city to get their children into daycare or after school care during the this time so they could got to work giving Vaccines.

Again this was rejected because application for daycare and after school care needs to be done the previous year and all the places are now taken.

Now neither of those requests seem unreasonable to me, to be exact they sound like something that should be common sense and should have been a no brainer

So one can guess none of these women said yes in the end.

10 ( +10 / -0 )

I have to agree with stickman, Japan’s reputation is taking a huge knock, we all used to think of Japan as the home of Kansan and just in time; machine precision efficiency was the normal. Alas that mistaken perception is well and truly torpedoed.

Talk about self inflicted damage!

9 ( +9 / -0 )

@Marie

Ex-teacher, Ex-employee, etc...

Is now common use by the present generation in both north America and UK instead of Former teacher, former employee, etc ...

Blame it on the contraction society we now live in texting, emails, etc... everything is now written in as compact and shortest way possible.

So the ex has no negative connotation.

4 ( +5 / -1 )

Kansan = Kanban drafted auto correct!

1 ( +1 / -0 )

!!drafted = dratted!! Again!

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Thousands of pharmacies over here in the States are doing shots, and they use pharmacists, not RNs.

Same in Canada.

This is Japan it would take at least 20 special studies, 50 cabinet level meetings, 4 Diet debate sessions, several votes, and multiple new laws before permission would be given to let pharmacist give injections.

Then once the new law is in place it will take another year to set up the conditions as to when where and how, that would be followed by another year of training each pharmacist.

So it could be done by let's say 2024 or 25. Longer if the doctor's associations try blocking the idea.

8 ( +8 / -0 )

Have an Idea!?

0 ( +0 / -0 )

How about bringing the people to the nurses instead of having the nurses go to a hospital, a center of a clinic?

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Organize big enough vaccination sites.

Provide space for kids care with strict safety protocols.

Nurses take their kids with them. Mothers take turns taking care of the kids.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

"employers are reluctant to recruit part-time nurses because it involves more work in training and assigning them duties".

some help is better than no help, get a grip, as for training, a nurse will be full conversent with giving injection.

I said in previous posts, reracruting nurses that have semi or retieard to help out, this is one of the ways for Japan to meet its unrealistic targets,

"We hope to support diverse working styles so that those with (nursing) licenses can use their expertise," a DIP official said. good, its a start, you need to be flexible and accommodating, if not they wont bother, as you need them more than they need you.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

It is easy to train someone to give injections. If they are done under the direct supervision of a physician they can be done safely. Patients need to be observed for 15 to 30 minutes after receiving an injection. And then they can be released with instructions on what to do if they have and adverse reactions. That's how the world does it. Japan can't do that because they seem to think they are exceptional. All I can say is Japan had better hurry up and get its population fully vaccinated or it will continue to pay the economic price. Already a new variant strain of SARS-Cov-2 that affects children is loose. Get moving, Japan! (Yes you need to administer vaccines on holidays and weekends and at night too.)

5 ( +5 / -0 )

Anyone who is willing can give a vaccination shot. It doesn’t take a medical background to stick a needle in someone’s arm. Train volunteers and pair them with a person with experience for a week or two and voila, a bigger workforce to get the nation through a national crisis. There is no reason why this has to be so hard.

3 ( +4 / -1 )

I got my shots at a local junior high school gymnasium. Volunteer firefighters administered both doses.

I understand if Japan doesn't want to train a 25-year old rice farmer how to administer injections just because he happens to be a volunteer firefighter whose main qualification is that he takes a weekend-long EMT seminar Ince a year, that's quite a stretch in a country where they won't even allow a pharmacist to do it.

But come on. You're not performing surgery here, you're sticking a needle into someone's bicep and depressing a plunger. Pick up the pace, Japan. Get more people giving shots and do it now, not after meetings about meetings about meetings.

6 ( +7 / -1 )

A special license is required in Japan to administer injections. Doctors and dentists get it as part of their training; most nurses don't. I think the recruitment drive for nurses is mainly about finding more staff to guide people at clinics, hospitals, and "mass" vaccination sites, and monitor their condition immediately following injection.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

@1glennToday 

Thousands of pharmacies over here in the States are doing shots, and they use pharmacists, not RNs.

Yes, pharmacists in the States are administering vaccines. However, they still need specific training and certifications for administering vaccines. Big pharmacy chains are providing that training and certifications for pharmacists.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

You can't hire them because who would look after their kids? Literally you need to find day care workers first.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

I get my regular flu shot every year from a pharmacist. No appointment, no waiting, no cost. I’m surprised that’s not something already available in Japan. For my Covid vaccine, things were a little different because pharmacies didn’t have enough supply yet. As soon as I qualified to receive the shot, I registered online with my county health department and two different supermarket/pharmacy chains, but I actually got an appointment more quickly through my doctor’s office. I went to a large vaccination site in April run by a hospital network set up on a college campus, about a 30-minute drive. The whole thing ran like clockwork. I was in and out both times in less than 40 minutes. So many volunteers, nurses, doctors - I was very impressed with the efficiency and organization. Some sites also have National Guard medical specialists administering the shots. Is Japan using SDF members at all?

3 ( +3 / -0 )

A dearth of doctors and nurses....

That doesn't fully explain it. There was never a great shortage of medical experts before covid. The problem is systemic: Japan's medical system is overwhelmingly in the hands of the private sector, which operates in its own interests, not necessarily in society's.

There are lots of qualified staff, but they are rigidly committed to roles unconnected with the vaccine rollout, unlike the UK' system, which can turn on a dime whenever the govt needs it to.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

JeffLee, you have highlighted the real underlying problem, the rest are merely symptoms.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

 In American English we only use it for someone with whom we parted ways badly.

Mmmmm. Nope. Incorrect. It is used as a prefix, meaning "former". No negative or positive connotation inferred

1 ( +2 / -1 )

There are all sorts of people vaccinating in the UK. Not just doctors and nurses, but pharmacists, dentists, midwives, vets etc and volunteers who have been trained. Everyone works when they can, a session or a whole day, it’s flexible. Every vaccination centre has nurses and doctors there to go through any relevant health questions and gain consent before you are vaccinated and provide any care, if necessary, after vaccination. There are other staff and volunteers doing the admin and, very importantly, marshalling people in and out the centre, maintaining social distancing and getting people through the process swiftly and safely.

This can be done anywhere, but it needs central organisation and standardised systems for recruiting staff and volunteers, and for the running of vaccination centres. This isn’t happening in Japan as the government has fobbed off this massive and essential responsibility to local governments which obviously is not working. The government are simply not doing their job as they do not want to get their hands dirty. It is a national disgrace and scandalous.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

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