The Australian College of Nursing (ACN) has welcomed the announcement by the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine to be administered in Australia.
Chief Executive Officer of ACN, Adjunct Professor Kylie Ward FACN, said the vaccine was a welcome development in the fight against COVID-19.
"This is the news we have been waiting for after the challenges of the past 12 months," Adjunct Professor Ward said.
"I would like to thank the pharmaceutical companies, public servants and the Federal Government who have all worked together to ensure that this vaccine has been developed and approved."
Adjunct Professor Ward said she hoped that this was the start of several vaccine approvals which would give options to nurses based on potential allergies or other conditions.
"More vaccine successes will mean that nurses have options to best support people taking the vaccine and ensure they have the best possible immune response."
Adjunct Professor Ward said the focus must now turn to ensuring that the immunisation program can be rolled out safely and effectively.
"Nurses will make up the majority of immunisers, and the Federal Government must ensure that we have enough trained and skilled immunisers to effectively deploy the vaccine," Adjunct Professor Ward said.
"As we saw with the flu vaccine in 2020, the Australian people will do the right thing to protect their communities, but we must ensure that enough appropriately-trained and qualified nurses are on hand to support those being immunised."
Adjunct Professor Ward said that until the immunisation program had reached enough of the population, COVID-19 restrictions would have to remain, and Australia would continue be faced with the cloud of the disease.
"Having enough nurse immunisers will mean that the Federal, State and Territory governments can consider easing of restrictions earlier and resumption of normalcy across Australia."
