Pharmacy students fan out across Anchorage to bring flu shots, COVID-19 boosters to assisted living facilities

Perlita Ayson, an administrator at a South Anchorage assisted dwelling house, gently rubs the arm of resident Vera West the place a flu shot and Pfizer COVID-19 booster shot was administered on Saturday, Oct. 16, 2021. (Emily Mesner / ADN)

At a South Anchorage assisted dwelling house, 90-year-old Vera West rested beneath a pile of blankets as an area pharmacy scholar measured out a dose of a COVID-19 vaccine booster shot.

For the previous 13 years, pharmacy college students on the College of Alaska Anchorage — together with native licensed pharmacists and nurses who volunteer their time to oversee the scholars — have devoted a pair Saturdays in October to go to assisted dwelling properties across the metropolis, administering flu pictures to tons of of seniors like West.

This 12 months, the scholars introduced alongside vials of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine so they may administer booster pictures to weak residents, too.

West’s daughter, Suzanne Jordan, stated she’s grateful for the yearly occasion. Going to a pharmacy or a health care provider’s workplace to entry pictures “could be inconceivable with out an ambulance or one thing to get her,” Jordan stated. She and different members of the family usually take the chance to get flu pictures for the entire household, she stated.

The collaborating college students have already had vaccination coaching and are licensed to offer vaccinations, stated Renee Robinson, an affiliate professor of pharmacy with the UAA/ISU Physician of Pharmacy program.

Annually, the scholars go to anyplace between 150 and 200 properties, principally within the Anchorage space. They primarily focuses on smaller assisted dwelling properties that always have only a few residents. These properties can particularly use the help as a result of they’ve extra restricted assets and transportation choices, fewer caregivers and sometimes no medical professionals on workers, Robinson stated.

“We attempt to present that at-home service that they wouldn’t simply have the ability to get,” Robinson stated.

College of Alaska Anchorage pharmacy college students and a licensed pharmacist sanitize the surface of their gear containers earlier than coming into a South Anchorage assisted dwelling house to manage flu pictures and the Pfizer COVID-19 booster shot on Saturday, Oct. 16, 2021. (Emily Mesner / ADN)

Flu pictures can occur similtaneously a COVID-19 vaccination, and on Saturday, many seniors acquired each a flu vaccine and a COVID-19 booster — one in every arm.

State well being officers have stressed the significance of getting a flu shot this 12 months to guard particular person individuals and Alaska’s weak well being care system towards yet one more extremely contagious respiratory sickness.

Alaska final 12 months had one of its mildest flu seasons in recorded history, partly due to COVID-19 mitigation measures that reduce down on virus transmission, and higher-than-normal flu vaccine uptake.

“The flu is chargeable for tons of of 1000’s of hospitalizations and tens of 1000’s of deaths yearly in america,” Dr. Anne Zink, Alaska’s chief medical officer, wrote in an opinion piece this week. “The flu shot is secure, considerably reduces your probability of getting the flu and helps stop critical sickness, hospitalization and demise related to flu.”

Older adults are particularly prone to extreme sickness from the flu as a result of their immune techniques aren’t as robust.

Jacob Jordan, a College of Alaska Anchorage pharmacy scholar, attracts a dose of the influenza vaccine to be administered to residents in a South Anchorage assisted dwelling house on Saturday, Oct. 16, 2021. (Emily Mesner / ADN)

Whereas some pharmacists across the state have reported hostility and harassment from individuals who don’t need COVID-19 vaccines, Robinson that the scholars visiting assisted dwelling properties have thus far “had a variety of help, and other people joyful we’re there,” she stated.

“A majority of residents in assisted dwelling properties are excessive threat, in order that they’re a bit of extra open to getting vaccinated,” she stated.

Pharmacists usually act as educators, addressing misinformation and answering questions individuals may need about vaccines.

“I feel being in that secure setting helps to have that fruitful dialogue,” Robinson stated about speaking with individuals at their properties.

College of Alaska Anchorage pharmacy scholar Janel Abo administers a vaccine to Emily Wilson, a resident at a South Anchorage assisted dwelling house, on Saturday, Oct. 16, 2021. (Emily Mesner / ADN)

West acquired her preliminary COVID-19 vaccinations earlier this 12 months, and Jordan, her daughter, stated that was a joyful time as a result of the vaccine made it attainable for her to begin visiting her mom once more.

Earlier than the pandemic, she’d been visiting her mom most evenings after she acquired off work. For many of 2020, visits together with her mother had been restricted to FaceTime, “however what she actually needed and wanted was contact,” Jordan stated. “And with the little display screen, it didn’t actually work. She didn’t perceive why I wasn’t visiting.”

West is considered one of 1000’s of Alaskans who lately grew to become eligible for COVID-19 booster pictures. That group consists of those that acquired their second dose of Pfizer’s vaccine greater than six months in the past and both: 1) are 65 or older, 2) dwell or work in high-risk settings or 3) have sure underlying medical conditions.

The FDA and CDC suggestions for the booster shot for higher-risk populations had been based mostly on some research which have proven the effectiveness of the vaccine could lower over time.

When the pharmacy college students provided a booster shot on Saturday, Jordan was on board together with her mom receiving one.

“No matter it takes to maintain her secure,” she stated.

Perlita Ayson, an administrator at a South Anchorage assisted dwelling house, pulls a blanket as much as cowl resident Vera West’s arm after West acquired a flu shot and Pfizer COVID-19 booster shot at a South Anchorage assisted dwelling house on Saturday, Oct. 16, 2021. (Emily Mesner / ADN)

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