By Sarah Butkovich
As COVID-19 cases continue to circulate throughout the country, more and more people are getting vaccinated. Although most people associate the elderly and hospital workers as the current recipients of the three leading vaccines, some students at Dominican are also in line to receive them.
Health science students at Dominican currently have the option to get vaccinated because of their major, said Kavita Dhanwada, dean of the Borra College of Health Science.
Nursing and PostBacc Medical students, Physician Assistants and Dietetics interns who have to attend clinicals or are doing rotations in hospital settings have access to vaccinations through Oak Park-River Forest Health Center or other sites in the area.
As part of their nursing rotations, nursing students have been able to give vaccinations to the community, and because of this, they are able to be vaccinated before they begin administering vaccinations to others.
A clinical rotation is a hands-on aspect of medical training where students interact with patients under faculty supervision. According to Dhanwada, about 110 out of 180 Dominican health science students (60%) who are doing clinical rotations have been vaccinated with at least one dose if not completely vaccinated. About 50% of nursing students are vaccinated through their own volition or through participation in vaccination drives.
Dhanwada also says Dominican does not currently have the ability to order vaccines for students due to the limited supply available in the state. But she still highly encourages students to take the vaccine if they have the opportunity.
Nursing student Kyra Ludwig received her first dose of the Pfizer vaccine through her clinical rotation at Mount Sinai Hospital Feb. 7. Many DU nursing students have been administering vaccines to employees there.
“I was nervous to get the vaccine only because I’d heard that the second round was giving people flu-like symptoms,” Ludwig said. “But I wasn’t very skeptical about its long-term effects. Talking with healthcare professionals and reading others’ research helps me to inform them of the myths and reservations associated with the vaccine. I would probably be a lot more skeptical if I wasn’t a nursing student.”
Ludwig was first in line to get the vaccine because she does most duties a nurse would do. As a part of her clinical rotation, she administers medications, aids in physical therapy, gives injections, changes wound dressings, and even bathes and feeds patients. As nurses like Ludwig get further along in their major, they spend more time in hospitals than the classroom.
But health science students aren’t the only ones eligible for vaccines at Dominican. Student teachers, such as English major Paige Adkins, are eligible because they will be going into K-12 classrooms.
“As a student teacher I have been able to see firsthand how nerve-wracking it is to wait for the vaccine and just how quickly appointments fill up,” Adkins said. “If it weren’t for student teaching, I would have had to wait a lot longer for my shot.”
Adkins and other student teachers at Dominican received their vaccines through the Chicago public schools they are partnered with. Although she notes that she feels grateful for being considered essential enough to be eligible for a vaccine, not everyone at Dominican has the same opportunity.
Most students don’t fall into one of the early categories for vaccinations, however.
Isabella Maciejewski is one of the many Dominican students who will not receive their vaccine until it is widely available. She is a psychology major and criminology minor who works as a receptionist in her free time, which means she is not considered an essential worker.
“Even though I wish I could get vaccinated right now, I know that there are others who need it more than me,” Maciejewski said. “I’m not jealous of any classmates who got it first. I’m lucky enough to be a healthy person, so for me it’s just a waiting game until the vaccine is available for everyone.”
President Biden recently ordered 200 million vaccine doses on Feb. 11 that are set to arrive early this summer, but until then the vaccines will be strategically distributed to essential workers like Adkins and Ludwig.
sbutkovich@my.dom.edu
image credit to Oak Park Patch
