Since 2016, UNE’s Center for Excellence in Public Health (formerly the Center for Excellence in Health Innovation) has partnered with local health care organizations to provide opportunities for health professions students to participate in clinic- and school-based flu clinics. This fall, 20 second-year College of Osteopathic Medicine students in the CUP AHEC Scholar Honors Distinction Program contributed to the influenza vaccination efforts of Greater Portland Health, the Maine Veteran’s Administration, Northern Light Home Care & Hospice, and St. Andre Health Care through 12 distinct flu clinics held in central & southern Maine. Through these efforts, students administered flu shots to approximately 400 children, adults, veterans & older adults.
While the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices recommends that all persons aged ≥6 months who do not have contraindications should be vaccinated annually, vaccination to prevent influenza is particularly important for those at increased risk for severe illness and complications from influenza. These persons include all children aged 6 through 59 months; all persons aged ≥50 years; and residents of nursing homes and other long-term care facilities. UNE is proud to collaborate with organizations who serve these at-risk populations to bolster their health & immunity during the flu season.
The participating osteopathic medicine students represented the Care for the Underserved Pathway (CUP) AHEC Scholars, a program of the Maine Area Health Education Center Network at UNE, which provides opportunities for health professions students to increase leadership skills, gain competencies in interprofessional education and team-based practice, understand and address health disparities and the social determinants of health in rural and underserved communities, and understand the role of practice transformation in addressing significant health and public health issues. Following her service immunizing older adults on the long-term nursing and dementia care units at St. Andre Health Care in Biddeford, CUP AHEC Scholar Noha Ahmed reflected on “how wonderful it was to work at the St. Andre clinic…it was one of the first truly clinical experiences I’ve had in school and incredibly rewarding”. Lorna MacKinnon, RN and Health Promotion Disease Prevention Program Manager with VA Maine, shared that she enjoys “seeing the medical students’ confidence bloom as the clinics go on. They are a pleasure to work with, and we greatly appreciate their help!”
“These opportunities allow our students to practice and gain competence in the clinical skill of administering vaccines, but they also provide the invaluable early experience of caring for, and communicating with, vulnerable populations that may present challenges of language and communication barriers, trust, traumas – and in the case of the children – behaviors that require problem-solving and teamwork”, explained Liz Mann, RN, MSN, PHNA, Clinical Educator within the Center for Excellence in Public Health. “It was incredible to watch their confidence and competence grow with each patient they saw, they learned a lot from the amazing nurses they worked with, and it was clear they took pride in being part of such an important public health initiative”.
UNE CUP AHEC SCHOLARS DISPENSE INFLUENZA VACCINES TO VULNERABLE POPULATIONS
By Ian Imbert, MPH