Students as Community Vaccinators: Implementation of A Service-Learning COVID-19 Vaccination Program

  1. Andrew R. Griswold
  2. Julia Klein
  3. Neville Dusaj
  4. Jeff Zhu
  5. Allegra Keeler
  6. Erika L. Abramson
  7. Dana Gurvitch

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Abstract

While the COVID-19 pandemic has caused major educational disruptions, it has also catalyzed innovation in service-learning as a real-time response to pandemic-related problems. The limited number of qualified providers was primed to restrict SARS-CoV-2 vaccination efforts. Thus, New York State temporarily allowed healthcare professional trainees to vaccinate, enabling medical students to support an overwhelmed healthcare system and contribute to the public health crisis. Here, we describe a service-learning vaccination program directed towards underserved communities. A faculty-led curriculum prepared medical students to communicate with patients about COVID-19 vaccines and to administer intramuscular injections. Qualified students were deployed to public vaccination clinics located in under-served neighborhoods in collaboration with an established community partner. Throughout the program, 128 students worked at 103 local events, helping to administer 26,889 vaccine doses. Analysis of a retrospective survey administered to participants revealed the program taught fundamental clinical skills and was a transformative service-learning experience. As new virus variants emerge and nations battle recurrent waves of infection, the need for effective vaccination plans continues to grow. The program described here offers a novel framework that academic medical centers could adapt to increase vaccine access in their local community and provide students with a uniquely meaningful educational experience.

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  1. Version published to 10.3390/vaccines10071058
  2. ScreenIT

    SciScore for 10.1101/2022.01.14.22269312: (What is this?)

    Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.

    Table 1: Rigor

    Ethicsnot detected.
    Sex as a biological variablenot detected.
    Randomizationnot detected.
    Blindingnot detected.
    Power Analysisnot detected.

    Table 2: Resources

    Software and Algorithms
    SentencesResources
    Program Development: Following the executive order enabling students to serve as vaccinators, Weill Cornell Medicine began training students as volunteer vaccinators to staff community vaccination sites organized by the Community Healthcare Network (CHN), a federally qualified health center.
    Community Healthcare
    suggested: None
    The survey was administered via RedCap and included quantitative questions about training and open-ended questions on value of experience.
    RedCap
    suggested: (REDCap, RRID:SCR_003445)

    Results from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not detect open code. Researchers are encouraged to share open data when possible (see Nature blog).

    Results from LimitationRecognizer: We detected the following sentences addressing limitations in the study:
    While the collaborative approach was overwhelming positive, one limitation was that a third-party managed the digital infrastructure tracking vaccines. As such, we were unable to retrospectively analyze vaccine data based on the provider (i.e. medical student, nurse, physician associate, or physician). Nevertheless, we believe that this three-part model integrating students, community partners and government agencies, can be utilized to enhance community-outreach programs at our institution and can be emulated for future service-based learning programs at medical schools across the country. Given the emergence of new SARS-CoV-2 variants (B.1.1.529 – Omicron, B.1.617.2 – Delta) and evolving nature of the COVID-19 pandemic the need for COVID-19 vaccinations remains high. Primary doses are available to children younger than 18, booster shots are available to most adults, and at least 20% of the population eligible to receive the vaccine has yet to receive a single dose. As the Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness (PREP) Act continues to allow medical students to serve as vaccinators, institutions around the country have the potential to help fulfill these needs. Here, we provide a skills-based, checklist-guided approach to ensure competency amongst medical students that can be easily adapted and implemented by all medical schools. Competency can be readily identified by most supervising attendings or house staff from the affiliated academic medical center. Once trained, s...

    Results from TrialIdentifier: No clinical trial numbers were referenced.

    Results from Barzooka: We did not find any issues relating to the usage of bar graphs.

    Results from JetFighter: We did not find any issues relating to colormaps.

    Results from rtransparent:
    • Thank you for including a conflict of interest statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • Thank you for including a funding statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • No protocol registration statement was detected.

    Results from scite Reference Check: We found no unreliable references.

    About SciScore

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  3. Version published to 10.1101/2022.01.14.22269312v1 on medRxiv