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female student sitting at table with mask on
Nursing student drawing up an artificial vaccine.

University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa nursing students and faculty members participated in a drill to administer the COVID-19 vaccine as they prepare to help with upcoming distribution events.

Eleven students from the School of Nursing and Dental Hygiene (SONDH) undergraduate and graduate doctor of nursing practice programs, and three faculty members, participated in the Hawaiʻi State Department of Health (DOH) COVID-19 Vaccination Program’s first point of dispensing (POD) exercise drill. A POD is a large-scale operation where the COVID-19 vaccine will be delivered to large numbers of people, in a short period of time from a specific location.

female student at table with patient
Nursing student checking forms and preparing to vaccinate.

The drill was held at Leeward Community College—the site of the first DOH COVID-19 mass vaccination effort in Hawaiʻi. Teams will vaccinate Oʻahu first responders there on December 21–24 and again on December 27–31.

Hawaiʻi recently received its first shipment of COVID-19 vaccine. The first vaccines to be administered from a POD operation outside of a hospital setting are being scheduled now. UH Mānoa nursing students and faculty will volunteer in the DOH mass vaccination PODs to administer the COVID-19 vaccine and perform other roles.

When the spring semester begins in January 2021, nursing students and faculty will participate in the statewide DOH POD vaccination operations as part of their clinical learning experiences. Nursing faculty have augmented the existing nursing curricula to include key concepts and skills needed to participate in a mass vaccination POD operation.

Health care providers from across the UH campus are also volunteering with the DOH UH Medical Reserve Corp and vaccination PODs. For more information, contact Kristine Qureshi, SONDH associate dean for research and global health.

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