Planning and implementing COVID-19 mass vaccination clinics

Purpose: The COVID-19 pandemic is an unprecedented global public health crisis. Mass vaccination with safe and effective vaccines to achieve herd immunity requires a whole-of-society approach. Primary care has played a key role in those countries that have succeeded in rapidly vaccinating a large proportion of their populations, particularly those most at risk. In this special report we synthesize existing guidelines and peer-reviewed studies to provide family physicians with practical guidance on planning and implementing COVID-19 mass immunization clinics. Methods: PubMed, Ovid, MEDLINE, Epub Ahead of Print, Embase and Google Scholar were used to search for relevant literature using keywords, including “COVID-19”, “mass vaccination”, “campaign”, “standard” and “best practice”. We also identified and analyzed national and international guidelines. Results: Forty-six relevant articles, reports and guidelines were identified and synthesized. Key considerations for COVID-19 mass vaccination clinics include establishing a leadership structure and key roles, identifying optional locations, clinic layout and workflow, day-to-day operations including infection prevention and control, and communication strategies. Ongoing data collection is required to evaluate and continuously improve mass vaccination efforts. Primary care can play a key role in organizing clinics and ensuring populations who have been made vulnerable by social and economic policies are being reached. Conclusions: Planning and implementing a successful COVID-19 mass vaccination campaign requires a number of key steps and considerations. As the COVID-19 vaccine rollout occurs in various countries, research will be required to identify key factors for success in different healthcare systems to inform future pandemic responses.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/167674/1/AFM-393-21_PP.pdfDescription of AFM-393-21_PP.pdf : Main ArticleSEL

Public health nurses in rural communities immunize during influenza pandemics: what meanings do they attach to the experience?

The H1N1 influenza pandemic (pH1N1) in 2009 was the first opportunity in history to administer vaccine on a grand scale. In Alberta, Canada public health nurses (PHNs) were the primary administrators of pandemic vaccine through mass immunization clinics. This paper describes what the experience of immunizing in mass clinics during pH1N1 was like for rural PHNs in Alberta. Five rural PHNs, all female, two being residents of the communities in which they immunized, and all of them knowing community members that presented to the mass clinics, participated in an interpretive phenomenological study of the meanings they attached to their lived experience. Five meanings are revealed that rural PHNs attach to their pandemic immunization experience: unpreparedness, urbancentrism, mistrust, personal growth, and moral distress. The interpretation of these meanings is that rural PHNs were often caught between a rock and hard place as they lived their experience