Nursing and medical students join forces at free flu clinic in Worcester

Year One students in the GSN’s Graduate Entry Pathway program take a break from inoculating Worcester residents to pose with Worcester DPH Commissioner Leonard Morse, MD (standing left), a UMMS affiliate in medicine and family medicine & community health.

Faculty and students of the Graduate School of Nursing and the School of Medicine were hard at work administering influenza vaccines at Worcester’s annual Community Immunity Day on Saturday, Nov. 13. A joint program of the Worcester Department of Public Health (DPH) and the Worcester District Medical Society (WDMS) that provides free flu vaccines to adults, Community Immunity has long benefitted from the support of UMass Medical School.

“This project is an exemplary community collaboration,” said Assistant Professor of Nursing Robin Klar, DNSc, who has been instrumental in developing the relationship between the GSN, the WDMS and the Worcester DPH over the past four years. Last year, GSN students also assisted in immunizing more than 14,000 Worcester public school children, as well as hundreds of Worcester police and firefighters, against seasonal and H1N1 flu.

This year, along with Abraham Ndiwane, EdD, and Eileen Terrill, PhD, assistant professors of nursing, Dr. Klar supervised students as they gave injections to approximately 1,000 area residents. In turn, students took part in a service learning experience that allowed them to observe the process for staging mass immunizations, participate in health teaching and documentation and practice their injection techniques, all in a public health outreach setting.

Community Immunity also offers an opportunity for interprofessional collaboration between the GSN and the SOM. Fourth-year medical student Jeremy Robbins, who volunteered at this year’s Community Immunity, said, “It is rewarding to be part of the next generation of physicians, nurses and health professionals who are stepping up and letting Worcester know they care. This event has certainly made me feel more closely entwined with the city and its people.” Student involvement in Community Immunity is also supported by the Building on the Promise: Learn and Serve UMass grant, an initiative of all five UMass campuses to facilitate involvement in community service via service-learning opportunities for UMass students.

With its goal to immunize as many individuals in as short a time as possible, Community Immunity Day further serves as a test of the City of Worcester’s emergency preparedness plan. “This interdisciplinary, interagency collaboration is a win-win situation,” said Dr. Ndiwane. “The students honed their screening, history taking and injection administration skills while also protecting the health of the public.”