Health Professions Students Ready to Assist America with COVID-19 Vaccination
Published December 17, 2020
On December 14, the first public COVID-19 vaccinations were administered in the United States, launching the largest mass vaccination campaign in our history and marking a major step forward.
“The FDA approval of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine is a long-awaited ray of hope in the battle against this pandemic,” says American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine (AACOM) President and CEO Robert A. Cain, DO, FACOI, FAODME. “It took an all-hands-on-deck commitment to get to this point, and now it will take the same kind of comprehensive effort to distribute and administer the vaccine effectively.”
Spearheaded by AACOM, Students Assist America (SAA) is an interprofessional collaboration to ensure this next step is successful. The 11 organizations in SAA contend that the nearly one million health professions students it collectively represents can play an important role in the COVID-19 vaccination workforce, if their state leaders allow them to help.
Deploying students in the COVID-19 vaccination effort offers a proven, cost-effective solution to this public health crisis. Medical, nursing, pharmacy and PA students already provide flu vaccinations with supervision, and many more types of students are trained to give injections during their education.
SAA is urging governors to permit and encourage skilled, supervised students to help meet the vaccination needs of our country. At the national level, SAA provided comments before the US Department of Health and Human Services National Vaccine Advisory Committee and sent a letter to the Biden-Harris COVID-19 Advisory Board to urge implementation of this important, interprofessional strategy. Dr. Cain also presented the history of SAA during a panel convened by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, urging a more permanent, expanded role for students in the healthcare team after the pandemic is over.
At the state level, SAA has worked to engage governors and state health departments, most recently meeting with Governor Larry Hogan’s office about the role students can play in vaccinating Marylanders. On behalf of SAA, Dr. Cain argued that strong consideration should be given to including students in the list of approved vaccinators. Governor Hogan subsequently updated an executive order to allow anyone who has been trained the ability to vaccinate with proper supervision.
SAA will continue its advocacy efforts to help ensure the workforce is prepared for the unprecedented challenge of vaccinating the American public and will also be emphasizing the importance of mental health support as the nation begins its long recovery.