If your school asked you, would you admin COVID vax on campus

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My admin is throwing this around - trying to become a vax site for our school community. Ultimately, I know it will never happen because things are too disorganized, but my initial response was like... WOW!. Could they add one more thing to my COVID plate LOL. 

Also, I get about 2-4 offers a week to admin COVID vax at pharmacies for $50-$75/hour... so no. I will not do it for free. 

Specializes in pediatrics, school nursing.

Well, my best/worst nightmare came true...

Last Wednesday morning, the local sheriff's dept reached out and offered their medical staff from the local house of corrections and vaccine supply to our elementary staff. They called at around 11:30a and asked to meet at 2:30. Myself and another nurse met with them for 30minutes, and came up with a plan to hold this clinic for up to 125 staff people in the MS/HS gym on Friday.

It seemed like such a great thing. It was in-service day, so no need for subs to cover classrooms. The gym would be empty! It's on a Friday! FREE HELP! All the things I wanted and dreamed about. I spent the last couple hours of the day drafting an email, creating a sign up form, and answering questions from the elementary admin team. All seemed well.

By 9:30 Thursday morning all of the elementary staff had been able to read the email and sign up for the clinic, and only 50 slots were filled of the 125. There are a total of 70 staff combined at the MS/HS level and our HR/Central Office, so we reached out to the MS/HS principal and he became irate that he was not consulted, shouted at our MS/HS nurse twice over the phone, nearly giving her a panic attack. I tried to write a "smoothing over" email, but was given even more flack from our super for not following the proper protocols and involving upper level Admin. They ultimately agreed to let it go on, but  I was left incredibly upset and disappointed. All we were trying to do was get our staff vaccinated. It was all lining up so perfectly, to get yelled at by admin just felt like a slap in the face. I worked tirelessly all day (on a pre-planned day off, no less); I made over 20 phone calls, fielded numerous email questions, all while navigating the bajillion things I HAD to get done personally that day (hence the day off). It was one of the most stressful days of my life. 

Friday rolled around and the clinic went off without a hitch. We only had one no-show, the superintendent apologized to me in person for the tone of his email, and thanked us (the nurses) for setting it up. They even made an announcement over the loudspeaker for the MS/HS staff to come down and get their vaccines - not many showed up, but still. 

Lesson learned. Even in a pandemic, if you don't go through admin you're gonna get yelled at.

 

1 Votes
Specializes in kids.
3 hours ago, k1p1ssk said:

 

Lesson learned. Even in a pandemic, if you don't go through admin you're gonna get yelled at.

 

Yeeps...no good deed goes unpunished. Sorry such a victory left a crappy taste in your mouth. But the end result is a bunch of people got vaccinated!

1 Votes
Specializes in pediatrics, school nursing.
4 minutes ago, NutmeggeRN said:

Yeeps...no good deed goes unpunished. Sorry such a victory left a crappy taste in your mouth. But the end result is a bunch of people got vaccinated!

That's what I kept telling myself; Even if I get in trouble, at least I helped over 50 desperate people get their vaccines sooner than if they had tried on their own.

3 Votes
Specializes in School Nursing.

We have done this already.  Our district partnered with our county PH department and administered the first dose to our staff members.  I wasn't paid extra because it was done during my normal working hours.  The second dose was during our Spring break and I didn't work that one nor was I asked to.  

1 Votes
Specializes in School nursing.

I've become the CVS and vaccine hunter. I've registered 50+ folks now myself. Helps that I am up early and when CVS drops new appointments. 

But also because of this, no staff can tell me they didn't get a chance to get a vaccine. Because if they wanted one, I would have gotten them an appointment in my state.

3 Votes

No, they haven't and no, I don't want to.  They have a local clinic doing assigned as a one-time offering this week, thank you.

Specializes in Med-Surg, Oncology, School Nursing, OB.

Our district we have had several clinics all at one spot where all the school nurses of the county come and do them for all the staff. We have a pharmacist on site who brings the vaccines and supplies. These were during days we didn’t have kids. Then we brought back all the kids and were asked to work either on a weekend or after work. They reluctantly paid us our normal rate and refused overtime. Come to find out the pharmacist gets paid like $50 a shot. The school system gets nothing. I think it’s a big crock but all I hear is how much good we’re doing for the community.  So I did it once then figured not worth my time unless they want to pay me more. It makes me mad because if a teacher works over 30 min for something then they sure get paid overtime.  Anyway it would be so convenient to give them at school and not be guilted into working outside my normal hours. However considering once thawed and opened it has to be used in a certain time frame and I can see lots of teachers say they forgot  to come when they said they would like they do with flu shots. I could also see them rushing in as I was ready to walk out the door or even those who would refuse to wait the whole time and trying to deal with that all while doing my normal job  would be next to impossible. But considering they constantly dump more on us every year without extra compensation it wouldn’t surprise me. 

Specializes in school nurse.
On 3/15/2021 at 10:38 AM, k1p1ssk said:

 

Lesson learned. Even in a pandemic, if you don't go through admin you're gonna get yelled at.

 

I don't mean this in a "piling on" sort of way, but I couldn't imagine not looping in admin to a project of this magnitude and importance. I sort of don't blame them for being miffed...

Specializes in pediatrics, school nursing.
23 hours ago, Jedrnurse said:

I don't mean this in a "piling on" sort of way, but I couldn't imagine not looping in admin to a project of this magnitude and importance. I sort of don't blame them for being miffed...

Oh, we did loop them in. In fact, 2 of the principals knew about it before I did. Had we actually followed the absolute perfect pathways, the clinic wouldn't have happened at all. I have no regrets.

1 Votes
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