by Lauren McGuire, Student Public Relations Writer
This fall, Cedarville University School of Nursing students collaborated with University Medical Services (UMS) to offer flu vaccinations and TB skin tests, or mantoux tuberculin skin tests, on students and faculty members. Receiving these vaccinations allows nursing students to meet their clinical compliance requirements.
The School of Nursing and UMS offered three different clinics to nursing students this fall. The Cedarville nursing students vaccinated 273 nursing students and several nursing faculty members. Students also administered 232 TB skin tests to 232 nursing students and several nursing faculty.
“The school of nursing provides the manpower with supervised student nurses who have a new clinical site right on campus, and the student ‘patients’ get a unique experience by having their flu shot or TB skin test given by a classmate and in a convenient setting,” said Debra McDonald, UMS director.
— Emma Ellens
"I always look forward to helping out with the immunization clinic because it’s a great opportunity to build on the skills we’ve been taught in class and labs and put it into practice in the clinical setting,” said Emma Ellens, a junior nursing student from Hudsonville, Michigan, who helped administer immunizations.
Additionally, Cliff Fawcett, nurse practitioner for UMS and assistant professor of nursing, coordinated with UMS, the school of nursing and the athletic training department to provide flu vaccination clinics as part of his doctoral project. These clinics took place in October and November. Nursing students gave 64 flu vaccinations, 49 of which were to Cedarville athletes, McDonald said.
“We felt like we needed to do a better job giving athletes flu shots because once one team member gets the flu, next thing you know, the whole team has it.” Fawcett said. “There was a low vaccination rate for athletes and so we looked into why and what we could do about it to solve a number of issues.”
Fawcett sought to make the clinics convenient for athletes by holding them on campus in the afternoon, at a time when they would normally have practices. Fawcett also created posters and sought to educate athletes on the importance of getting their flu shot.
Both the flu vaccination clinics allowed for valuable student experience and allowed for interprofessional collaboration between the school of nursing, school of pharmacy and UMS.
Located in southwest Ohio, Cedarville University is an accredited, Christ-centered, Baptist institution with an enrollment of 4,380 undergraduate, graduate and online students in more than 150 areas of study. Founded in 1887, Cedarville is recognized nationally for its authentic Christian community, rigorous academic programs, including the Bachelor of Science in Nursing, strong graduation and retention rates, accredited professional and health science offerings and high student engagement ranking. For more information about the University, visit www.cedarville.edu.