A community worker talks anonymously about the challenges and rewards of delivering the Covid jab
At the end of November, when the hospital I was working at was becoming overwhelmed with Covid patients, I started hearing talk about people being needed to join the vaccine effort. I usually work elsewhere in the NHS, but my work had been stopped temporarily. I now work as a vaccinator in the community going to care homes and assisted-living settings, and doing home visits for older and vulnerable people.
The training was over a month, and intense. We learned about the principles of intramuscular injections, how to screen people, confirm patient details with GPs and pharmacists, and lots of details of how the Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines work. Then we had three days of good practice in a mass vaccination centre hub – jab, jab, jab, jab. The vaccinators I trained with all joke that it’s sometimes like the Battle of Britain each day. We’re in the dispersal area making bad jokes, then next minute it’s: “Here’s the list, quick, scramble!”
