One week into the spring '21 semester, College of Nursing students and faculty answered the call for vaccine volunteers. On January 19th. 51 students arrived on the opening day of Prisma Health Midlands vaccine site. With the overwhelming number of community members signing up to get vaccinations, numerous other vaccine sites also began calling on the College. As COVID persisted throughout 2021, the College of Nursing remained steadfast in their commitment to community health.
"Nursing students were a tremendous asset to University Health Services. It allowed our staff to focus on other efforts or tasks with the confidence that COVID-19 related tasks assigned to the CON student volunteers would be handled with the utmost care and eagerness." - Eric Tyler, UofSC Health Center
COVID Vaccine Data, Jan '21-Dec '21
- Students: 676
- Faculty: 67
- Total hours volunteered: 6,872
Flu Vaccine Data, Fall '21
- Students: 90
- Faculty: 17
- Total vaccines given: 432
Students delivered vaccines in partnership with:
- Dorn VA and UofSC Veterans Clinic
- Kershaw Health
- Lexington Medical Center
- Mackey Family Practice
- Piedmont Medical Center
- Prisma Health (Gamecock Park)
- Providence Health and St. Joseph Catholic Schools
- United Cerebral Palsy
- UofSC Student Health Center
Critical Experience
Administering vaccines provided students with a unique opportunity to work in critical community health settings. Students rotated tasks and were exposed to a broad range of duties such as patient intake, health assessment and patient communication. Eligible students also practiced intramuscular injections, which is a skill students rarely perform in the acute care setting, as most medications are oral or IV.