Week One
5/17 - 5/23
For my senior project, I am helping out where I can with the Covid vaccination sites, run by OHSU. Half of my time is spent volunteering at the PDX vaccination site, trying out different roles, and learning how the operation is run in person. The second part of my senior project is more of the behind-the-scenes work at all of the Portland sites, working on Smartsheets to gain a better understanding of all the work that goes into making these sites run. During that time I am working with an employee named Desza Dominguez, who is teaching me what I need to do in the upcoming weeks.
We have been living in this pandemic for more than a year now and it has been so amazing to see my friends and most of the people around me getting vaccinated. I chose this project because I know that all of these things I see happening don't go without a lot of work and I wanted to better understand all that people are doing to help us, as well as helping out with this work where I can. I have been volunteering at PDX since February which is part of what helped me be able to do this for my project. During my shifts there I have met a lot of people who play a big role in making each of the sites run properly so as I was planning this project, I reached out to a family friend, Desza, who is a supervisor at OHSU but is currently overseeing a lot vaccine volunteer teams.
I've written about this a bit already, but my goals for this project are to gain some experience in a healthcare setting, better understand the work that it takes to make these sites run, and understand more of the administrative side of things, such as learning how to use Smartsheets.
Emma, this is such a worthwhile project! Thank you for shining a light on this work and for all that you will do to contribute to the effort!
ReplyDeleteThis is a wonderful project, Emma. I am sure you will learn lots, but more importantly will help a lot of people.
ReplyDeleteEmma: it was great to talk with you the other day. How is this week shaping up in terms of your minute-to-minute work?
ReplyDeleteThis is so cool Emma! Vaccinations are so important and you are important for helping them.
ReplyDeleteHi Emma! Wow that is a very impactful project! I hope you’re enjoying it and learning a lot.
ReplyDeleteThis is a great idea. Volunteers are underappreciated, and Covid vaccine volunteers doubly so!
ReplyDeleteSuper exciting, Emma! Can you describe a bit about what you do during your volunteer shifts? I know many people are necessary to make the operation run smoothly. Are you in a role that enables you to interact with the people getting vaccinated or are you running logistics behind the scenes?
ReplyDeleteHi Veronica! It all depends on the shift. When I'm working from home it's all logistics behind the scenes , but at PDX I've been able to try many different things. I've done vaccine supply and support several times, which mostly consists of making sure each of the stations in the vaccination tents are stocked with enough vaccines so walking from where they are mixed and put in syringes back to the tents. In that role I mostly interact with other volunteers and a large amount of the vaccinators. As workforce support, I do more online like checking people in but also do some cleaning, and making sure volunteers have everything they need. The role that I get the most interaction with people getting vaccinated is non-clinical patient monitor so I can interact with people as they wait to be released.
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