Flu vaccination offers experience to emergency volunteers,
students
The free flu clinic sponsored by the San Benito County Public
Health Department at the Veterans’ Memorial Building has always
been a learning experience. But this year a partnership with
Gavilan College students makes that especially true.
Flu vaccination offers experience to emergency volunteers, students
The free flu clinic sponsored by the San Benito County Public Health Department at the Veterans’ Memorial Building has always been a learning experience. But this year a partnership with Gavilan College students makes that especially true.
“We extended our efforts to include Gavilan College,” said Samela Perez, the public information officer for the San Benito Health and Human Services Agency Public Health Division. “In an emergency, it wouldn’t just be us [county staff].”
Each year the free flu clinic is used as an emergency preparedness drill by county staff and they use the experience to update the county emergency plans.
“We want to see if our plans actually work, see if we can do it,” Perez said.
Elizabeth Falade, the San Benito County public health officer agreed.
“We want to assure people that we will be there for them in a public health emergency,” Falade said. “We want them to know who we are and this is the place to come. We want to do this every year so people get used to it.”
The staff gave out more than 2,100 vaccinations this year. To make the most of their stock the staff scheduled what is a called a reverse 9-1-1 call that went out to listed numbers in the county the day before the clinic to remind people of the event.
Soon Song, the mother of a 9-month-old, received the call and saw fliers about the event. Song got the FluMist while her baby got the injection.
“She’s our first baby and we didn’t want her to get sick,” Song said. “My husband’s coming after work.”
She chose the public health clinic because “it’s free and convenient,” she said.
“We are doing shots and FluMist and that is a whole segment [of the population] we couldn’t do last year,” said Falade, at the event. Shots can be given to infants and the chronically ill, while FluMist is recommended for healthy individuals 2 years and older
Midweek, as Public Health staff went over their data, they found that the mix of vaccination types did add to the time it took residents from registration to when they exited the building after receiving their vaccine. The average “through-put” time was 15 min. this year, compared to eight and a half min. last year.
“It has a great deal to with the fact that we were providing a bigger array of vaccination types,” said Patricia Morales, who served as the public information officer for the project. “Also we did three times the amount of people we did last year, including many families.”
With two methods needed to administer the vaccines, Public Health staff spoke with instructors from the medical assistants and nursing programs at Gavilan College. Linda Stubblefield and Bret Barker kept a close eye on their students as they worked at the clinic.
“It’s awesome,” Stubblefield said. “We’ve been involved in flu clinics before, but not to this magnitude. It teaches communication skills as well.”
Many of the medical assistant students volunteered to do intake interviews with people who showed up for the clinic, a process in which they gathered medical history information.
“The medical assistants are doing intake and at least half of them are bilingual,” Stubblefield said. “The nursing students are giving injections.”
Debra Rosas, a medical assistant student, was assigned to direct people after they received their vaccination and answer any questions they might have.
She took the chance to volunteer “so we could get some hands-on experience and help the community,” she said, adding that Gavilan has an excellent Allied Health program.
“It’s been an excellent learning experience,” Rosas said, adding, “It’s part of the course.”
In addition to the student volunteers, many other county staff members and community members outside of the Public Health Department showed up to volunteer.
“We have 65 volunteers,” Perez said. “That exceeds the number of employees we have. It gives a chance to sit back and do what we do best.”
This year Perez said volunteers were offered “just-in-time training.”
“They come in and they are thrown right into the fire,” Perez said.
Jeri Grace-Arias was one such volunteer. She is a supervisor for the Department of Child Support Services and heard that volunteers were needed through an e-mail.
“I just wanted to help out and I can’t think of a better way,” she said. “It’s a new experience. You get to meet new people and help people.”
She showed up for the clinic with no knowledge of what her assigned task would be.
“I just didn’t want to give anyone a shot,” Grace-Arias joked.
She got “about 60 seconds” of orientation on her job as a runner. Sporting green vests, the runners directed people around the clinic, answered questions and were available to move to different parts of the room when needed.
“It was fast,” she said.
