Nursing students at the University of North Georgia’s Gainesville campus thought they would complete their clinical experience virtually this semester due to the pandemic. Instead, they’re getting experience in the field and they’re helping fill a staffing need by administering COVID-19 vaccines.
“We started the semester the second week of January, and I had no clinical sites for them,” said UNG nursing professor Nina Myer. She prepared her 83 students to learn remotely this spring. Then, her department received a request. Alan Satterfield, the public health director for Georgia’s second region (Northeast Georgia), needed more staff to help distribute COVID vaccines. Myer jumped at the chance.
“Of course, it was music to my ears,” she said. “I immediately began coordinating.”
Myer assigned her students to six different health departments to administer vaccines.
“The students are told, ‘Okay, we’re switching gears, you are going to go to clinicals, so change your schedules and sign up,’” Myer said.
One of her students, Kaley Pitts, said she loved seeing patients’ reactions when they got the shot.
“Some people were comparing it to Christmas and some people were talking about getting their life back, and then you feel like they have their safety, and so it was so rewarding,” she said.
Pitts said she appreciates being able to complete her clinical experience in person.
“It’s been tough for me and my cohort … to not be able to be in the hospitals already helping,” she said. “When we had this opportunity … every one of us was excited because we feel like it’s our chance to actually do something.”
Marquise Pruitt, another student, expected to complete her clinical experience using virtual simulation software. She says it works pretty well, but she likes interacting with patients better.
“I honestly just love seeing how people’s faces light up,” she said. “As soon as you give them their shot and put their bandaid on, they just light up completely. They’re not scared to go out anymore. They’re just happy to go to the grocery store.”
Pruitt hasn’t come across patients who are reluctant to get the vaccine yet.
“Everyone who comes, they are willing, they want it,” she said. “They’re not really saying, ‘No, I don’t want this anymore.’ They’ve all showed up, they filled out the paperwork, and they’re ready to get their vaccine.”
Myer says the National Council of State Boards of Nursing recently issued a ‘call to action’ for college nursing departments to involve students in administering COVID vaccines.
“We also needed to really kind of meet that call to action,” Myer said. “We couldn’t just sit here and say, ‘Well, we tried, but we didn’t do it.’ Absolutely not. We’ve got to make every single effort to make that happen.”
Myer says UNG students will continue to meet the ‘call to action’ through the end of next month when their semester ends and many will graduate.
“They have responded to [the experience] beautifully,” Myer said. “I have not heard a single negative comment about a student showing up late or not doing what they were supposed to or were not prepared or they didn’t give the vaccine properly. Not a single time have I heard that.”
