Nursing Students help with COVID-19 vaccination clinic at UNF

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The University of North Florida is hosting a COVID-19 vaccination clinic Tuesday and Wednesday for university employees who are 65 or older, and any medical students who are in contact with COVID-19 patients.

The clinic is taking place at the UNF Field House on Tuesday, Feb. 2, and Wednesday, Feb. 3, between 10 a.m. - 2 p.m.

As part of the distribution process, nursing students are helping not only give out the vaccine, but to also help oversee the process.

“They are helping at all points in the vaccine clinic today. In assessing patients, in handing out the paperwork and ensuring that patients, our Osprey Family coming in, put their names and date of birth on their COVID cards, and giving the vaccines themselves. As well as monitoring them post-vaccine,” Valerie Morrison, the Director of Student Health Services. “They’ve also been actively involved since last semester with our mass testing for COVID-19 through PCR testing and rapid antigen testing.”

First-year nursing student Nancy Cheung was one of the people distributing the vaccine.

“I feel really honored to be here,” Cheung said shortly after practicing administering a shot on a stand-in nurse.

Cheung has been preparing to go to nursing school for years, and now she is in school, she has to learn during a pandemic.

“It’s definitely a little nerve-wracking but I have to remember that this is what nurses are here for. I don’t go into this profession thinking it’s all daisies and flowers, I wouldn’t go into this profession if it was,” Cheung said. “I definitely worry my family a lot, but I understand that this is what I have to do, and this is what I chose to do.”

Those who receive their initial dose at UNF on Tuesday should come back on March 2. Those who receive their initial dose on Wednesday should come back on March 3.

Cox Media Group