Faculty and students from the School of Nursing provided almost 10,000 COVID-19 vaccines to the Conway community in partnership with Conway Regional Medical Center and Baptist Health Medical Center-Conway.
Presley Mullins ’21 has a passion for helping people. She came to the University of Central Arkansas with the intention of becoming a doctor, but she soon realized that she could help others in a different way.
“When I realized that the nurses are the ones who spend all day with the patients and that the nurses are the ones that know everything about the patients and provide all their care, I was like, ‘I think that’s really what I want to do and maybe not be the doctor,’” Mullins said. “Nurses can connect with patients in a different way than doctors.”
Mullins was a senior nursing major with a minor in honors interdisciplinary studies. The Cabot native was among 120 UCA School of Nursing students who volunteered at two Conway vaccination clinics in spring semester as part of their community health nursing course. Mullins said she found great joy in this process.
Between January and April, UCA School of Nursing students and faculty administered more than 12,000 vaccines and served more than 1,300 hours.
Four UCA instructors lead the community health nursing courses: Leslie Blackwell, clinical instructor I; Annette Gartman, clinical instructor I; Laura Gillis, assistant professor; and Andrea Taylor-Garza, clinical instructor I. The course focuses on nursing outside of the hospital setting and includes hospice, home health, and public schools amid a myriad of other areas, Gartman said.
Through this course, enrolled nursing students participated in vaccination clinics to earn needed patient contact hours at Conway Regional Medical Center and Baptist Health Medical Center-Conway.
“It’s been such a beautiful partnership between us and the hospitals because they’re getting the vaccine doses, and they’re getting all the clinics set up, and we just come in and provide the manpower to actually enable them to give large numbers of doses in a short amount of time,” Gartman said.
Susan Gatto, director of the UCA School of Nursing, said faculty and students have stepped up to be community partners throughout the pandemic.
In April 2020, the School of Nursing donated personal protective equipment to Conway Regional and Arkansas Pediatrics of Conway. The donation included 150 isolation gowns, 400 surgical masks and 200 surgical caps, as well as 6,000 small, 6,000 medium, 6,000 large and 5,600 extra-large gloves.
Twenty-four faculty members volunteered 220 hours and administered 2,766 vaccines to doctors, nurses and other health care professionals in December and January.
“It was over Christmas break, so it really wasn’t a hard sell at all. Everybody was very excited to be a part of it,” Gatto said. “We gave a lot of hours, and we gave a lot of shots. And then when the students came back, the community health faculty said, ‘Hey, we have students. Let’s make this part of the clinical for community health.’ That’s how the vaccine clinics started.”
Nursing faculty visited the clinics to monitor students and provide assistance and guidance when needed.
“The students are so excited,” Gatto said. “They just feel like they are contributing to the health and safety of their future healthcare colleagues and the public.”
Priya Gopal ’21 was a level IV nursing student minoring in addiction studies when she volunteered with Conway Regional, vaccinating at least 25 patients.
“I was nervous for the first couple of injections, but I kept the big picture in mind,” Gopal said. “I knew that I was part of something that was bigger than myself. I felt humbled to be a part of a monumental time in history.”
Hunter Cassidy ’21 vaccinated at least 30 patients during his time at Conway Regional. He hopes that students’ efforts will help bring normalcy to everyone’s lives.
“A couple of patients described [student volunteerism] as being hopeful in a time where so much has changed and health care workers have been worked to the max, that we as students are stepping up to be the fresh new wave of workers to push back against the pandemic and work towards getting back to the way of life that we all loved before COVID-19,” Cassidy said.