The Department of Consumer Affairs on Feb. 11 approved a public health emergency waiver that allows registered dental hygienists in California to administer the COVID-19 vaccine to individuals 16 and older under the supervision of an eligible vaccine provider, such as a dentist, licensed physician or surgeon.
The waiver is a result of CDA’s ongoing advocacy work with state leaders to utilize the expertise of California dentists to safely accelerate the statewide vaccine distribution process.
RDHs who wish to administer the vaccine must first complete at least six hours of an Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education-approved training program that covers:
- Hands-on injection technique
- The recognition and treatment of emergency reactions to vaccines
- An assessment of the RDH’s injection technique
RDHs will also be required to complete CDC’s COVID-19 vaccine training course. It consists of three modules that are self-paced and collectively take one hour to complete.
The free online modules are:
- WB4460: COVID-19 Vaccine Training: General Overview of Immunization Best Practices for Healthcare Providers
- WB4464: Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine: What Healthcare Professionals Need to Know
- WB4461: Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine: What Healthcare Professionals Need to Know
To obtain certificates of completion for each of the three modules, the RDH will need to create an account at CDC’s Training and Continuing Education Online and follow the instructions. CDA’s troubleshooting guide also offers instructions on how to obtain a certificate of completion. The RDH should keep these certificates in their records similarly to how they would store continuing education records.
While these courses do not currently count for C.E., CDA continues to advocate for all CDC courses to qualify as C.E. hours and for qualification to be retroactive for those who have already completed the training.