COVID-19 Vaccination Clinic Reflections from MCW’s Research and Clinical Nurses

From the 5/6/2021 newsletter

Perspective/Opinion

COVID-19 Vaccination Clinic Reflections from MCW’s Research and Clinical Nurses 

Compiled by Hope Campbell, MSN RN 

Ms. Campbell, a research nurse in the Department of Neurology, volunteered in the MCW COVID-19 Vaccination Clinic. In honor of National Nurses Week, she offers her reflections on that experience and has compiled messages and thoughts from several other nurse-volunteers … 

Happy Nurses Week to all the MCW nurses and nurse practitioners! 

When I started working remotely in March 2020, I felt helpless and guilty that I was in the position of being able to work from home while my nurse friends were working on the front lines in emergency departments and ICUs.  I felt like I should be out there alongside other nurses caring for the very sick. My position as a research nurse made me feel like an imposter.  

When the opportunity arose to administer vaccines at the newly created MCW COVID-19 vaccine clinic, I knew that I wanted to be part of the effort.  After the MCW pharmacy students, who were “first-in” vaccinators, had to return to their classes, our group of MCW nurses and nurse practitioners volunteered on a regular basis to work alongside the pharmacists, pharmacy students, medical students, physicians, and medical assistants to staff the clinic.   

I’ve worked on this campus for almost twenty years but have only been employed at MCW for three. Meeting people and being able to volunteer was incredible.  All of us had other duties within our departments, but still made the time to volunteer because it felt great to be a part of something so meaningful.  

During the vaccination clinic, I met coworkers face-to-face that I had previously met only via email.  I had emotional conversations with community members coming in for vaccines that had not spoken to another person out of their “bubble” in eight months. After a year of being apart, families would now be planning get-togethers, thanks to the MCW vaccine clinic.  I even had the opportunity to vaccinate my parents and my sister.  I listened to stories of family members that had died of COVID-19 and how thankful the person sitting in front of me was that they could get the vaccine. I’m thankful for these short but powerful conversations that were had. They will stick with me for a long time.  

The beautiful thing about being a nurse is we can serve and provide care in so many ways.  That doesn’t make us any less of a nurse if we aren’t a front-line worker. I’m so proud to have been involved in the clinic even if it was a small role.    

Here are the thoughts from some of the MCW nurses that volunteered in the clinic:

Barbara Shimada-Krouwer, RN, BSN

I’ve been an RN for over thirty-six years. I felt that being a nurse was my “calling” since I was five years old. I’ve specialized in neuro, cardiovascular, and clinical research. 

During my career, I’ve cared for hundreds of patients, from post-op spinal fusion and stroke patients to CABG and post-cardiac catheterization patients.  I have been part of countless research studies that were designed to provide new advances in pharmaceuticals, treatments, and devices to treat a myriad of diseases. I have even treated COVID-19 positive patients involved in clinical trials.

The thanks and tears of gratitude that I have received from those that I have vaccinated will forever be part of me. People were grateful for many things: 

Vaccinated to see their first grandchild. Vaccinated to be able to hold their elderly parent in a nursing home. Vaccinated to be able to go back to work. Vaccinated to save their life. 

Because of the sheer gravity of this pandemic, I feel that I have been able to contribute at least a small part in getting this infection under control. The vaccination team coordinators were truly amazing. It was inspiring to work alongside so many dedicated professionals that shared the same goal of getting people vaccinated!

Being able to be part of the COVID-19 vaccine clinic has been the most important nursing role that I have ever performed. The countless lives saved, and illness prevented is why I am a nurse. 

Karen Schmidt, RN, CCRC

As a nurse who has been out of acute care and unable to help in the direct care of COVID-19 patients, this was a great opportunity for me to utilize my nursing skills to help be part of the solution to this pandemic.

It was a joy to help out in the vaccine clinic!  I loved meeting all the very appreciative vaccine recipients and volunteers from all over campus.  I really appreciated how well the clinic was run, and the focus on teaching whether it was educating recipients on the vaccine or watching the pharmacy and medical students learn how to give their first IM injections.

Roxanne Pritchard, RN, BSN

I was honored and excited to be able to volunteer in the vaccine clinic and appreciated the support I received from my department which allowed me to volunteer in the clinic during normal work hours.

I looked forward to meeting those who were being vaccinated – to hear their stories, discuss their concerns, address their questions and ensure their safety and well-being.  These experiences reminded me why I became a nurse.

I was in awe of the number of faculty and staff who volunteered their time in the clinic and was proud to be a part of a very organized process involving multiple departments within MCW. 

Sonya Carpenter, RN

While my role was primarily administering the vaccine, I was impressed to see what it took to run a clinic comprised of volunteers to take on this huge task. Everyone involved, from front door screeners to the staff preparing the vaccine and monitoring the vaccine expiration time (six hours from drawing up to in a person’s arm) to those cleaning the workstations after every participant to the vaccinators, to the volunteers monitoring the patients for 15-30 mins afterwards for risk of anaphylaxis were wonderful. I was very honored to be part of a team that included volunteers of all areas MDs, pharmacists, nurses, medical assistants and administrative staff. This vaccination clinic has vaccinated over 10, 000 people.

To prepare, I read up on patient education for the participants (what to expect after receiving vaccine). Still, I was surprised by the number of questions people asked. Many people had gotten their information on social media and from news outlets. Unfortunately, a lot of what they had learned was not from reputable sources, so my advice was often to check with their healthcare providers, the CDC, the Wisconsin Department of Health Services, and other reputable sources. 

I consider myself very fortunate that, as a front line worker, I was in one of the first groups to receive the vaccine. The people to whom I administered the vaccines were primarily over sixty-five, educators, childcare workers, police, fire, and correctional staff. Many of them were so grateful and humbled to be able to receive this vaccine. It was rewarding to be part of that.

Sherin Uthuppan, RN

It was such an honor to be able to participate and to have played a part in bringing us closer to the end of this pandemic. I thought it was inspiring how nurses from all different fields heard the call for help and were able to come together quickly to save so many lives. Some were new grads. Some were non-clinical. Heck I’m sure there were nurses who came out of retirement! While working at the clinic, I met a lawyer whose first career was as an RN. He was so happy to finally have a chance to use his hands-on nursing skills for the first time in forever. I thought that was really cool! 

Jesus Chavez-Penaloza, LPN

I enjoyed assisting and getting to know different people from different departments.  I was inspired also by the new administration, to be a patriot and assist teachers, police, and other groups able to come in.  Even the non-clinical volunteers, such as the people who helped to clean those who double-checked the forms were great. I'm a team player and felt the need to assist and keep our associates safe and informed.  I wanted to absorb the information to share with my family.

We encountered challenges, such as when some people did not have access to email to receive a reminder to come in for the next appointment.  I really liked how Dr. Karen MacKinnon adjusted the flow to best serve the community. All in all, it took true team effort to make the clinic a success.  

Lindsay Ruiz, RN

I thought the atmosphere was overall very positive. It was amazing to be able to see people from all over come together for this one initiative. It was inspiring to hear people’s stories of hope and their motivation for getting the vaccine. Despite having some issues with staffing shortages, the volunteers seemed to have great teamwork attitudes and were motivated to get as many people the vaccine as possible. 

Renee Dex, RN, BSN

For me... it was so nice to be a "nurse" again as most of my days spent doing administration tasks. It was important for all of us to be a part of "something bigger" especially since we had been working so hard on COVID-19 clinical studies where we were involved with data collection, treatment protocols, and medication administration since we had returned to on-campus work in May 2020. 

I loved that we were able to meet so many people at MCW and in the community that we would not normally encounter and educate them about the vaccine and its importance. People were so grateful.  

Marking the Moment…and Continuing Forward Together

From the 5/6/2021 newsletter

Perspective/Opinion

Marking the Moment…and Continuing Forward Together

Jennifer Popies, MS, RN, ACNS-BC, CCRN-K; CVICU Clinical Nurse Specialist

Ms. Popies, a Clinical Nurse Specialist in the Cardiovascular ICU, writes about what it has been like to be part of the team caring for desperately ill patients with COVID-19 over the past year. Recently, the caregivers in the unit paused to reflect on the one-year anniversary of the pandemic and to bear witness to what the year has meant …

It is overwhelming, humbling, and simultaneously a source of pride - as well as pain - to think of all the precious nursing moments with patients and families that I have borne witness to or been entrusted with in heartfelt conversation over the past year.  Gestures that may seem like the smallest details of a patient’s care became some of the largest measures of bringing humanity to the bedside.  

Nurses staying in sweltering layers of PPE, including re-used N95 masks for a time, to hold the hand of patients who were scared, alone, and gasping for air. Serving as champions and cheerleaders for patients to encourage them to keep moving, to keep eating, to simply keep trying. Reading letters and cards sent by family members even though the patients were intubated and sedated so they could still have a chance to hear the words of their loved ones. Bathing and washing the hair of dying patients so they would look recognizable for a family’s last goodbye over an iPad. Making handprints of their patients to give to their families to have as tangible memories of their loved one when that is all we could leave them with.  

All roles deserve to be celebrated for their unique contributions to the wellbeing of those we collectively serve, but this Nurses Week, it is a special privilege to try to capture in some small way what it has meant - and continues to mean - to be a nurse in this pandemic.  Never before has the public, and perhaps even some of our healthcare colleagues, really understood so clearly that “Nursing is both a Science and an Art.”  

Deciding to mark our “anniversary” …

Before Nurses Week was approaching, a different date loomed:  March 18, 2021 – the date that marked the one-year “anniversary” of our CVICU accepting our first COVID-19 patient on Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO).  Our nursing leadership team, along with our ECMO RN Coordinators, talked about how best to honor this. How should we acknowledge the losses our team suffered over the year and the triumphs we celebrated? Most of all, how do we truly recognize and express thanks for the talent, skill, dedication, and compassion of our staff?  

]We gathered feedback from our nurses and settled on brief “marking the moment” sessions - one during night shift at 0300 and another on day shift at 1100 - with a special message read from our leadership team, followed by an even more special compilation of video messages from prior COVID-19 ECMO patients who were successfully discharged from our care.  Then we set about getting the word out about these sessions and inviting all members of our interprofessional team to join in because, as nurses, we coordinate care and our care is not just for our patients, families, and each other, but for everyone on our team.

Hitting the mark …

The date came and, as happens in nursing, we had to adapt our plan slightly from 0300 to 0330 to accommodate a new ECMO patient just rolling in when we initially planned to start. We had to do “repeat” sessions throughout the morning and early afternoon so that we could ensure that all team members working that day could take the time to listen to our message and see the video.  It was worth everything, though, to be able to stand together and pause, to remember together, to tear up and laugh at the video messages together, and to feel the solidarity in our team to keep going, to keep persevering, to keep caring since we all recognize that our work is not over.  

The unprecedented times are not yet done, and we know that our work to share this gratitude for the care that all nurses have given - and continue to give - in every unit, not just ours, is not done.  Indeed, our work to let all our healthcare team members in all departments   no matter their role   know they are appreciated for what they have contributed and continue to give, is not done.  It is in that spirit that I share below a slightly modified version of the message we wrote for and read to our nurses and our team, in the hopes that it will also hold reflection and meaning for you who are reading this.  It is truly meant for each of you, too.

To our nurses and our teams:

In March 2020, when we learned that we would be receiving our first COVID patient at Froedtert, none of us could have fathomed what this past year would bring.  We hear the numbers all around us of what the pandemic has done in America – millions infected, more than 540,000 lives lost - and yet they still somehow fall short of capturing the enormity of what we have personally experienced as a team in just one hospital, in one city, in one state, in one country.

The challenges and changes that we have seen in just this one year are startling to list.  We donned and doffed according to rapidly changing guidelines, we implemented reusing PPE and sending it for UV light disinfecting to try to protect ourselves and each other, and then learned to use other PPE that we had never had to learn before like PAPRs and CAPRs and Elastomeric masks.  We implemented airway teams, proning teams, AGP guidelines, and the use of extension tubing to run IV pumps outside of rooms.  We cross-trained floor nurses and uptrained Resource Pool nurses.  We developed and implemented guidelines for putting patients onto ECMO and other treatments for COVID and adapted them as we learned more with every passing month.  We tried different therapies - hydroxychloroquine, convalescent plasma, remdesivir, and Cytosorb to name a few - all while learning to tolerate O2 sat levels and lab levels we could never previously have imagined.  We adapted different ways to try to help patients handle the symptom burden and isolation of this virus – medication regimens at doses we weren’t used to, partnering with trauma psych despite not being trauma units, learning to use iPads with WebEx for everything from routine family connection time to family conferences to harps of comfort music sessions to end of life moments.

Specific to COVID-19, we have collectively cared for hundreds of patients.  We have lost some of these patients, despite our best efforts, despite exceptional care, despite our deepest hopes to give them back to their loved ones...but these efforts were not in vain simply because they died.  Their families noticed, their communities noticed the care they received, and we will remember them; caring for them changed us.  Please join me in a moment of silent remembrance for them now...

We have also been able to celebrate incredible triumphs, moments of seeing our patients stand for the first time in many weeks, be freed from their tether to an ECMO machine or a ventilator, roll out of our ICUs to other floors or facilities or home with us cheering them on.  None of that would have been possible without each of you, without each member of our team, whether your role was directly caring for COVID patients or caring for our other acutely ill patients who required our specialized care.  One shining, crystal clear truth that has never changed over the past year is this:  When we stand together, we stand stronger - for our patients and for each other.  

As a leadership team, we have marveled at what has been accomplished this year and are incredibly proud of the care you have delivered and continue to deliver despite personal struggles and the professional challenges that have been faced.  There are simply not enough words to express our gratitude, our deepest thanks for everything that you have done and who you have shown yourselves to be as the Froedtert team in caring for all the patients and families that we have served over this past year.  Please know that you are seen, you are valued, you are our Froedtert Family!  Thank you from the bottom of our hearts!

Jennifer Popies, MS, RN, ACNS-BC, CCRN-K is a Clinical Nurse Specialist in the Cardiovascular Intensive Care Unit at Froedtert & the Medical College of Wisconsin. 

Transforming Health Care and Health Professions Education in Times of War, Pandemic, and Disaster: Lessons from Two Founding Mothers

 From the 5/7/2021 newsletter

Director’s Corner

 

 

Transforming Health Care and Health Professions Education in Times of War, Pandemic, and Disaster: Lessons from Two Founding Mothers   

 

 

By Adina Kalet, MD MPH

 

 

This week, the Transformational Times celebrates National Nurses Week with contributions from MCW nurses and nurse practitioners. Dr. Kalet reflects on the lives and contributions of the founding mothers of the modern nursing profession, and how they remain exemplars of the character, caring, persistence, and grit needed to emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic with a health care system that is both more humane and scientifically cutting edge …

 

 

As a little girl, I was enthralled with biographies. I read a slew of stories with simplified messages where the “(s)hero” triumphed over adversity, had eureka moments, left the world a better place, and – usually - lived happily ever after. Two of these stories have stuck with me. Clara Barton and Florence Nightingale, both self-educated, 19^th century nurses, profoundly transformed health care and health professions education during times of crisis.  

  

Two amazing, transforming women

Clara Barton - a American public-school educator, humanitarian, and abolitionist who knew Susan B. Anthony, Frederick Douglass, and several presidents - is recognized for being remarkably clinically innovative in the face of scarce resources and overwhelming need during and after the Civil War. For her omnipresence and habit of reading to and writing letters for wounded soldiers, she was known as the “angel of the battlefield.”  Barton went on to found the American Red Cross and establish its preeminence in international disaster response and relief starting with the horrific Johnstown Flood of 1889.

Florence Nightingale - an upper-class British social reformer - became an icon of Victorian era British society for her work organizing care for wounded soldiers during the Crimean War. At the time, she was dubbed, “the lady with the lamp,” for her tireless, ever present, compassionate, and attentive individualized care to those in need. The image was sensationalized in the press, but Nightingale’s true brilliance was as a statistician, epidemiologist, and transformative educational leader. Her "Diagram of the causes of mortality in the army in the East," a complex pie chart defining the field of hospital epidemiology, was a remarkable distillation of data that remains among the first health infographics (along with Charles Joseph Minard’s “Napoleon’s March to Moscow Map”). Her work is credited with driving dramatic reductions in deaths from hospital acquired infections long before the discovery of antibiotics. For this intellectual accomplishment, she should be, but is not, called the mother of medical informatics. 

Barton and Nightingale were unlikely leaders. They shared the experience of nursing very ill family members early in their lives. As privileged women from wealthy families, they were likely expected to marry well and raise families but, because they were both unusually well-educated and independent, they forged their own paths. They each had rare access to political influence. They carried deep convictions about social justice issues and displayed unusually fierce empathy and compassion for the poor and oppressed. They both were “out of the box” thinkers, unafraid of hard work, eager to try new things, meticulous and scientific in their methods, and able to persuade others to support and join them in their work. They both served bravely under awful wartime conditions for extended periods of time, and continued to serve faithfully through long, productive careers despite obstacles, challenges to their leadership, and their own personal quirks (Barton was known to be “difficult”). Both remained single and, as far as I can tell, supported themselves through their work (I ordered a few books and will let you know).

The same years Clara Barton was designing, funding, supplying, and running mobile battlefield hospitals, Nightingale was establishing the first secular nursing school in the world at St Thomas' Hospital in London. Although each was a prolific writer and lecturer, they never met but likely did know of each other’s work.

In honor of their legacies and brilliance, newly minted nurses all over the world take the Nightingale Pledge on graduation and Clara Barton remains among the most celebrated of American women of all times, both as a nurse and as a leader. 

  

Who will lead us through the post-COVID-19 transformation?

Why tell these stories during National Nurses Week (which begins on May 6^th and ends on Nightingale's birthday on May 12^th)? Is it because I am a feminist history nerd?  Perhaps, but I also see them as role models for anyone who seeks to do the transformative work that will surely emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic.  Cataclysmic events, such as wars and pandemics, can accelerate innovation and change in both health care and education, but only with the right kind of leadership.

 

The COVID-19 pandemic is not a war

The national zeitgeist in spring of 2020 made us all want to celebrate the mighty battles against the virus and the heroism of our health care professionals and frontline workers. As a society, we look to our COVID-19 heroes the way the Victorians raised up the “Lady with a Lamp” or the “Angel on the Battlefield.” Those of us working away from the front lines express gratitude for the sacrifice of others.

But, if we stop to reflect, war imagery only partially defines what has occurred. Medicine is not a war. Most physicians, nurses, respiratory therapists, first responders, and other essential workers went to work because they had to, because that was what they were trained to do, and because that is what everyone expected. Our front line friends and colleagues remain vulnerable human beings that are called to head into the unknown, not in armor, but in PPE. Many of our colleagues experienced real consequences of their dedication.

We mourn those who became gravely ill or died. Too many colleagues suffer lingering physical, spiritual, and moral distress. As such, we must pledge to support our colleagues as they rest, recover, and take stock. I hope we can help them heal.

 

 MCW Nurses inspire

As Louis Pasteur reportedly said, “luck favors the prepared mind.” There is no doubt that there are many well-prepared Clara Bartons and Florence Nightingales out there who will emerge from our global pandemic experience and become leaders. We must provide them resources, break down barriers, watch them grow, and celebrate their work. Health care professionals are exquisitely prepared, well-educated, persuasive, and able to step up, serve, take advantage, and innovate when opportunities arise.

COVID-19 has already provided many opportunities. For some local examples, read Clinical Nurse Specialist Jennifer Popie’s inspiring description of about how the Froedtert & the Medical College of Wisconsin nursing leadership honors the exhausted staff members who persist, innovate, inspire, and provide compassionate care as the pandemic rages through the ICUs. Be prepared to be humbled by the vaccination clinic experiences of volunteer nurses, and consider joining Kelly Ayala, DNP, BSN, in a Hack-a-thon to address access to care issues.

 

 Thanks to our nurses!

For this year’s National Nurses Week, I personally extend my respect and appreciation for my hard-working nurse colleagues and family members (my brother, sister-in-law, and brother-in-law). I know it has been a remarkably difficult year and, despite all the spectacular innovation, it is not over yet. When the history of this time is written, I believe we will say with pride that we knew the heroic nurses and staff who showed up and, in the spirit of Clara Barton and Florence Nightingale, saw a need, pitched in, educated and rallied others to care for those who were suffering and created long lasting transformative institutions.  I know for a fact that our nursing colleagues make us all better because they showed up.  

 

 

Adina Kalet, MD MPH is the Director of the Robert D. and Patricia E. Kern Institute for the Transformation of Medical Education and holder of the Stephen and Shelagh Roell Endowed Chair at the Medical College of Wisconsin.

The MCW School of Pharmacy’s COVID-19 Immunization Program

 From the 4/23/2021 newsletter

Some questions for …

 

 George E. MacKinnon III, PhD, MS, RPh - MCW School of Pharmacy

 

 

The MCW School of Pharmacy’s COVID-19 Immunization Program

 

 

In what ways was the MCW School of Pharmacy well-positioned to quickly ramp up a response to the call for COVID-19 immunizers? 

Dr. MacKinnon: The School of Pharmacy ran several influenza clinics on the MCW Milwaukee Campus that well prepared faculty and student pharmacists to respond to the call for immunizers, albeit these were very small operations. In the fall of 2020, under the leadership of Professor Karen, MacKinnon, Director of Outreach in the School of Pharmacy, we expanded the influenza clinics and opened them to more individuals of MCW (all students, staff, and faculty). The intention was that these clinics would serve as the prototype for the COVID-19 Immunization Clinic for MCW. The MCW School of Pharmacy joined with the MCW Office or Research (led by Ann Nattinger, MD, MPH, Associate Provost for Research, Senior Associate Dean for Research, School of Medicine) to jointly lead the creation of a COVID-19 Vaccination Clinic on our Milwaukee Campus to administer the COVID-19 vaccine beginning December 22, 2020.

All eligible MCW student pharmacists are trained early in their education to administer vaccines, including the COVID-19 vaccine. They also receive training in the Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) program in point-of-care testing such as nasopharyngeal testing for coronavirus and strep throat testing, and thus were an asset to our clinical partners for COVID testing these past 12 months. Additionally, many of our pharmacy faculty have been trained in immunization administration over the years. Thus, we had a cadre of internal pharmacists and student pharmacist that were able and willing to participate in COVID-19 vaccine administration.

Pharmacists have expertise in planning for vaccine procurement, storage, distribution, preparation, administration, post immunization monitoring, and record keeping. Fortunately, the School of Pharmacy had just jointly hired Kristin Busse, PharmD, BCPS with the Office of Research when the pandemic emerged in early 2020. She came to us with years of experiences in investigational drug services at Froedtert and was an ideal pharmacist to lead the vaccine procurement and preparations (complying with all regulatory issues at federal and state levels for the emergency use authorization (EUA) vaccines that were to be released).

 

How quickly did you decide that you needed to be proactive with the Wisconsin state legislature to change the rules for oversight and delivery of vaccine? What was that process like?

Dr. MacKinnon: When we began to develop our PharmD curriculum in 2015, we identified that we would be unable to include immunization training early on in the program and had to wait until the second year of the program. We did meet with MCW Office of Government Relations but realized that this was a statutory change needing intervention from the state legislature. Over the past four years, we also met with the Pharmacy Society of Wisconsin (PSW) expressing our desire to gather support as we believe that having a state statue dictate the timing of curriculum delivery in a PharmD Program is overly prescriptive, limiting, and antiquated.

As it became apparent that in late 2020 a COVID-19 vaccine would likely be available, we again brought up this topic with PSW and brought the other two schools of pharmacy in the state into the discussion. Our position was simple, during a pandemic, when all appropriately credentialed providers are needed, such arbitrary distinctions would hinder our full deployment of life-saving vaccines now and into the future.

During this process we also requested an additional language change that would allow student pharmacists to be supervised by any health care provider authorized to administer vaccines (e.g., nurses, physicians). As was previously written in statute, a student pharmacist must have been overseen by only a pharmacist in the administration of an immunization. In fact, we used LCME accreditation language to help support our position and draw an analogy to medical education. With the Legislature’s bipartisan bill and the Governors approval, our suggested changes were enacted in late February 2021. Thus, we have been able to support a team-based approach to healthcare in concert at the regulatory and professional levels, at least with respect to immunizations.

 

When the next pandemic arrives (as it likely will!), what will we do differently?

Dr. MacKinnon: Certainly, there were identified process improvements along the way. The clinic, while conceptually the same in December, has grown and matured to an efficient operation. This sentiment was echoed by the many individuals that came to staff the clinic or be immunized. The credit to this goes to the blended teams from the MCW Office of Research (led by Dr. Nattinger) and the School of Pharmacy (led by Dr. MacKinnon) via the MCW COVID-19 Vaccine Program Team Leads as follows:

Vaccine and program logistics:

Leads: Kristin Busse and Lisa Henk

Clinic Supervision and orientation:

Leads:  Karen MacKinnon and Susan Mauermann

Scheduling and planning:

Leads: Jayne Jungmann and AshLeigh Sanchez

Reporting and maintenance of records:

Leads:  Jen Brown and Theresa Dobrowski

Personnel Eligibility and Invitations:

Leads: Katie Kassulke and Ann Nattinger

MCW COVID Administrative Response Team:

Leads: Dan Wickeham and Adrienne Mitchell

As the vaccine goes through the phases of roll-out into our communities, the role of a pharmacist is critical, as pharmacists have specific knowledge about immunization and pharmacists’ accessibility can help address issues surrounding vaccine hesitancy in the public. We need to continue the public health discussion surrounding the value of all immunizations to preventing diseases, disability and death.

 

What reactions did you get from the SOP students, faculty, and staff to the process? 

Dr. MacKinnon: The School of Pharmacy mission is to: Advance the health of our communities through innovative pharmacy education, continuous public and professional service, and diverse scholarly collaborations. So, our desire to contribute to abating the pandemic was right in line with our mission all along.  We were able to get 100% participation from our faculty and staff. With respect to engagement, overall, there were 95 individuals (faculty, staff and students) from the School of Pharmacy that contributed over 4,500 hours in clinic over the 45 days of clinic operations.

 

 

What surprised you most in all of this?

Dr. MacKinnon: Two things in particular stand out, though none as real surprises but rather gratitude.  

First was the initial influx of staffing for the first phase of the COVID-19 Clinic from School of Pharmacy faculty, staff and student pharmacists and staff from the Office of Research over the typical holiday break. Many individuals changed their personal plans to staff the clinic. As time went on many individuals were putting in 12-hour days at the clinic and catching up on their regular responsibilities on weekends, it became apparent that more assistance would be needed. Student pharmacists needed to return to classes and faculty had responsibilities to attend to as well. This is when the entire MCW campus rallied to support the clinic with medical students, having been trained in immunization, joining forces with physicians, nurses, physician assistants, and medical assistants as immunizers. There too was an outpouring of support from the basic sciences as individuals with the requisite technical skillset and experiences were able to prepare the syringes filled with vaccines.  

Next was the outpouring of support that came from all members of the extended MCW Community including Board members and the significant others and family of faculty and staff. Frankly people had been isolated for so long because of the pandemic and they just wanted to do their part to assist in the clinic. We welcomed them with open arms. Everyone’s contributions were essential to so many tasks that needed to be accomplished including the planning, delivery and ongoing operation of the Clinic. 

As the saying goes, culture eats strategic planning every day for lunch. Thus, we can plan and strategize all that we want, but the culture of collegiality and respect that we initiated through the COVID-19 Immunization Clinic is what emerged that allowed us to be successful. This developing culture will have a long-standing impact to MCW in years ahead as it emerges into a health science university. I am certain that the COVID-19 Immunization Clinic will be a defining moment in this transformation internally and externally as others in the community recognize what a resource and gem that MCW is to all.

 

George E. MacKinnon III, PhD, MS, RPh, FASHP, FNAP is the Founding Dean of the School of Pharmacy and Professor of Pharmacy at MCW.