UH Manoa Nursing students participate in the first DOH COVID-19 vaccine POD exercise drill
On Monday, December 14, 2020, 11 UH Manoa Nursing students from the undergraduate and graduate Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) programs with 3 faculty members participated in the Department of Health (DOH) COVID-19 Vaccination Program’s first Point of Dispensing (POD) Exercise Drill. A POD is a large-scale operation where the COVID-19 vaccine will be delivered to large numbers of people, in a short period of time from a specific location. The drill was held at UH Leeward Community College, which will be the site of the first DOH COVID-19 mass vaccination effort in Hawaii and will vaccinate Oahu first responders.
Hawaii recently received its first shipment of COVID-19 vaccine. The first vaccine to be administered from a POD operation outside of a hospital setting are being scheduled now. UH Manoa nursing students and faculty will volunteer in the DOH mass vaccination PODs to administer the COVID-19 vaccine and perform other roles.
When the January 2021 semester begins, nursing students and faculty will participate in the statewide DOH POD vaccination operations as part of their clinical learning experiences. Nursing faculty have augmented the existing nursing curricula to include key concepts and skills needed to participate in a mass vaccination POD operation.
Healthcare providers from across the UH campus are also volunteering with the DOH UH Medical Reserve Corp (MRC) and vaccination PODs. For questions or more information, contact Kristine Qureshi, PhD, RN, FAAN, CEN, PHNA-BC, Associate Dean for Research and Global Health at kqureshi@hawaii.edu.