Nursing students play key role in vaccine clinic

Members of the Missouri National Guard check information on those waiting in line Friday morning for their COVID-19 vaccination.

DAR/Paul Davis

One of the key components to any vaccination is somebody to administer the shot.

Nursing students with Three Rivers College helped do just that at Friday’s mass COVID-19 vaccination event, which was held at the former Hydro Adventures.

Dr. Staci Foster, chair of Nursing and Allied Health at TRC, said 22 fourth-semester nursing students volunteered at the event along with eight faculty members.

The students needed to be supervised by a nursing faculty member, she said, but were able to actually do the injections themselves.

“Everyone is really excited and ready to help,” she said. “They’ve been having a really good time. My students got a lot of great experience. They like being kind of the leaders and trying this type of drive-up clinic out.”

At the event, 1,950 people received the first dose of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine over about eight hours. That equates to about 4 shots given every minute, with 10-15 vaccination stations set up at the clinic.

These were doses allocated to the Butler County Health Department. The event was organized by the health department, Missouri National Guard and other community partners.

“It gives (students) the experience of seeing some type of mass, community-wide event because we’re serving so many people at one time,” she said. “This is not something that happens commonly and so that experience has been amazing.”

Students got to see the staging and process from beginning to end.

“That has been a big benefit to them, and then every one of them has given more injections today than they will probably in the next three years of their nursing career,” Foster said on Friday during the event. “So, it’s been a good experience for them to get very comfortable with that skill.”

It wasn’t the only skill students got to practice.

“They’ve also had to talk to all the patients that are coming through, receiving the vaccine and that has been a really good experience for them,” Foster said.

The National Council State Board of Nursing put out a memo to all nursing programs, Foster said, encouraging them to assist with COVID-19 vaccination clinics. The Missouri State Board of Nursing also encouraged it, Foster said.

“There’s a shortage of manpower in doing it,” she said. “We’re kind of the leaders in this state in nursing programs to do a drive-thru event. People are helping with clinics, but there’s a big push for nursing students’ help across the state and across the nation. We’re happy to be a part of it.”