Wellness at Penn’s annual campus flu clinic vaccinated approximately 7,300 Penn community members this year, a reduced turnout compared to last year’s figure of over 10,300.
The annual clinic, which offered free flu vaccines to all Penn community members, was hosted at the Gimbel Gymnasium in the Pottruck Health and Wellness Center from Oct. 16 to Oct. 18. This year’s clinic was “Philadelphia” themed, with soft pretzels, Tastykakes, and a special appearance by Gritty, the Philadelphia Flyers’ mascot.
According to Rebecca Huxta, Wellness at Penn’s director of public health, more than 5,400 of those vaccinated this year were students and around 1,800 were faculty or staff of the University.
Wellness at Penn reported that the average turnaround time — measured from entry of Pottruck to the exit of Gimbel Gymnasium — across all three days was 7.5 minutes, with the busiest times being the lunch hour from 12 p.m. — 1 p.m. and the closing hour of 5 p.m. — 6 p.m.
The undergraduate school with the highest percentage turnout was the School of Nursing, and the graduate school with the highest percentage turnout was the School of Dental Medicine. Both schools had 56% of their student populations vaccinated at this year’s clinic.
Wellness at Penn took into account suggestions from their flu clinic attendance survey after last year’s clinic in deciding this year’s theme. Attendees were offered soft pretzels and Tastykakes after receiving their shot, took pictures at the “Philly Fights Flu” balloon wall, and listened to Philadelphia-inspired music.
Huxta wrote that this year’s theme “fit into the University’s focus on belonging and the University’s vision for In Principle and Practice.”
“Getting vaccinated helps protect your neighbors, reminding us we’re interwoven and interconnected; [it] shows you are an anchored Philadelphia and Penn citizen, and keeps you engaged in your studies,” Huxta wrote.
Wellness at Penn also invited undergraduate nursing students to volunteer with their instructors to support vaccine preparation and administration. Huxta described this opportunity as a “unique clinical experience for these students working a large scale, campus wide public health event.”
A School of Nursing student administered the flu vaccine for Interim Penn President Larry Jameson at the year’s clinic.
In the fall semester of their senior year, Nursing students learn about community medicine and have their clinical placements at a variety of community health centers around the Philadelphia area. In place of a clinical rotation for one week, students have the option to volunteer at the flu clinic.
Nursing senior Kate Cerniglia said that she was lucky to be able to help with the flu clinic this year, adding that there was a higher demand than the number of spots available for Nursing students at the flu clinic.
“I loved my experience volunteering at the flu clinic. I’ve had a few opportunities to give [intramuscular] injections — flu vaccines are IM injections — in clinical, but they were few and far between. It was a really great opportunity to get a lot of practice,” Cerniglia said.
Several Nursing students who administered shots encouraged their friends to get vaccinated.
“It’s definitely a unique experience because you get to give vaccines to your friends. It’s one of the only chances at Penn when your friends can actually see what we do in nursing,” Cerniglia said. “It also works as immersion therapy if you are a little scared to give vaccines. Giving vaccines to people you know really forces you to overcome any fears about that.”
Huxta added that a new electronic medical record system made it easier to handle the documentation of immunizations, meaning that students who attended the flu clinic will have their flu vaccine documentation uploaded to their Wellness portal.
Wellness at Penn will be hosting a COVID-19 Booster Clinic from Nov. 13-15, available to Penn community members who register in advance for an appointment.
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