Vaccines for Valentines Day and SODOTO

I have now completed my first 16hr week of Vaccinator shifts at the QMU Drive-Through centre and it has been interesting, informative and fun.

My first 4hr shift on Friday evening paired me with an experienced vaccinator (ie someone who had started the previous day!). My new colleague, a retired GP, was very good company and a good practitioner of SODOTO (See One, Do One, Teach One). I was very quickly vaccinating alongside my colleague and duly signed off as competent. The main additional skill besides vaccine administration is learning the dark art of preparing the highly delicate Pfizer vaccine and maintaining the cold chain system while taking care with expiry timings of each vial so that not a drop of this precious stuff is wasted.

The following day, over an 8hour shift, I was paired with with a new vaccinator colleague, a physiotherapist, and used the same SOTODO technique to help him to get up to speed as a competent practitioner in his own right. My final 4hour shift today began before dawn and saw me vaccinating solo.

My first impressions are very positive. This is a very well thought through, managed and organised system of drive through vaccine delivery with some inevitable snags and teething issues which are and will be sorted out and settle down in due course. The staff at the centre come from all over the NHS and elsewhere and are all fabulously helpful and kind, especially the traffic control staff who are out in all conditions patiently guiding and directing drivers to the next right stage.

The weather has added, or rather subtracted, a degree or two of interest as it has been a wee bit chilly so far. It is fair to say that most of us are dressed in layers more suited to a walk in the Scottish hills than a day at work but that will gradually change as winter melts into spring, and spring blossoms into summer.

Over the course of the coming week twelve of my sixteen hours are crammed into one long shift so I’m interested to see how well I survive that marathon reintroduction to the world of work.


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