Since more and more people are offered the vaccine, the newspaper staff decided to interview a nurse at one of the county vaccination centers.  Kingsway parent and a member of the Gloucester County Health Department,   Liz Grant, has been giving out the Covid-19 vaccine at the South Jersey Mega Vaccination Center. 

Background 

Liz has worked at the health department for 13 years and she has worked at the vaccine clinic since it opened in January. She works at the Gloucester County Mega Vaccination Center which is located at the Rowan College of South Jersey Gloucester Campus in Sewell, New Jersey. The clinic is run by the Gloucester County Department of Health and supported by the Gloucester County Office of Emergency Management and Gloucester County EMS. 

Q & A with Nurse Liz Grant

Question: How many hours per week?

The clinic is open 12 hours a day 7 days a week and Liz works 70 hours per week. 

Question: When did she start giving out vaccines? 

The clinic opened at the beginning of January and Liz and other nurses of the health department began giving out vaccines as soon as it opened. 

Question: How do people register? Procedure? 

People can register to get the vaccine online through the New Jersey vaccine scheduling system. For people who can’t go online such as senior citizens and others, the nurses reach out to those communities to help them get in for the vaccine. Upon registering, people will get scheduled for an appointment and there is a phone number for people that are not able to get online so that a nurse can register them. 

Question: How many get vaccinated per day? How many days per week?

When the clinic first started there were only about 600 people per day and now that they have gotten in the swing of things with perfecting their set up about 6000 people receive the vaccine per day. The appointment times run between 8 am-12 pm and 2 pm-6 pm all seven days of the week. 

Question: What vaccines do you assist with?

Liz assists with all of the vaccines as she is one of the directors of the clinic. In the beginning, the clinic was giving out Moderna and Pfizer and now they are only giving Pfizer out. On Friday, March 12 they began giving out the Johnson and Johnson vaccine as well. They traveled to churches and halfway houses to give it to those who are unable to travel to the clinic site. The Johnson and Johnson vaccine will only be given out there since it is unable to be given out at the clinic site. 

Question: What problems have you seen occur?

Liz says that some people have come back for their second shot but not brought their CDC card which certifies their vaccine. They then have to look them up in a system which is a bit of a harder process. Some parents have also sent teens to get vaccinated without a parent going and they are unable to vaccinate the person without their parent present. However, Liz says that besides these minor inconveniences the clinic has been run extremely smoothly with no major issues. 

Question: What happens when there are extra doses?

They allow walk-ins when there are extra doses of the vaccine. A person can come into the clinic in the morning if they want to get vaccinated without an appointment. They are then told to come back at 2 pm to sit and wait until after the appointments to get their vaccine. However, they are very good with counting the doses with the appointments and balancing the amount of vaccine drawn which leads to very few extra doses being left. Once the vaccine is drawn it must be used within 6 hours so the nurses are careful to open the right amount.

Question: What have you learned working there?

The main thing Liz says she has learned is how to treat different kinds of people. She says most of the people she has interacted with have been pleasant and very happy to receive the vaccine. She works with some incredible people and is very glad to be part of such an amazing team. They have members of the national guard assisting with the clinic and many different kinds of nurses from hospitals, nursing homes, and schools. 

Question: How do people react when they are vaccinated? Emotions?

People are very happy to be getting the chance to get vaccinated. Some are slightly anxious but feel very reassured upon receiving the vaccine. They are extremely grateful and appreciative of the nurses.