The immunization volunteers of Tennessee
Annie Dong is a final-year PharmD candidate at The University of Tennessee Health Science Center College of Pharmacy.
The year 2021 brought a new wave of difficulties for both the world and, most notably, for health professionals. COVID-19 was still the forefront issue of the health care field, and American patients and health professionals were scrambling to navigate this new “normal.” With FDA approval of the first COVID-19 vaccine in late 2021, the world saw this as the first sign of the light at the end of the tunnel.
The University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHSC) College of Pharmacy faced this challenge head-on, and our success led to our chapter receiving the 2021–2022 Operation Immunization National Award at the 2023 APhA Annual Meeting & Exposition in Phoenix this past March.
Tri-campus involvement
Student pharmacists from all three UTHSC campuses—Memphis, Nashville, and Knoxville—hosted multiple immunization events for COVID-19 across the state of Tennessee. In Memphis, an innovative event to serve the city’s large Vietnamese population was held. This event was sponsored by a Vietnamese pharmacist in collaboration with our chapter to offer free influenza and COVID-19 vaccinations to the Vietnamese community at Quan Am Monastery, a Buddhist temple.
While this event was open to all APhA–ASP members, Vietnamese student pharmacists played a featured role as they were empowered to serve individuals of their culture. As a result, many members of the Vietnamese community were immunized and were able to ask health-related questions in their native language in a welcoming environment.
Student pharmacists on the Nashville campus collaborated with Vanderbilt University to host an event called Boostapalooza to administer COVID-19 booster vaccines to patients who qualified for them at the time. At this event, student pharmacists were able to work alongside Vanderbilt pharmacy staff—many of them alumni of UTHSC—to administer more than 500 vaccinations to patients.
The Knoxville campus also hosted a novel event at Neyland Stadium, home of the Tennessee Volunteers. At this event, student pharmacists vaccinated students and staff from The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, as well as the Knoxville community, with the COVID-19 vaccine. At this event, close to 100 vaccines were given.
Along with novel events such as the one at Neyland Stadium, student pharmacists on the Knoxville campus were also involved in an influenza and COVID-19 vaccine clinic at The University of Tennessee Medical Center, during which close to 2,000 influenza and COVID-19 vaccinations were administered to hospital staff and the community.
Much more around the state
While these are some of the more large-scale immunization events that UTHSC student pharmacists participated in, these only highlight a few of the events hosted by these student pharmacists. Many more clinics were held, and student pharmacists from across all three campuses were heavily involved in vaccination efforts for the community.