Robin Steaban, MSN, RN, looks on as, from left, Lisa Flemmons, MSN, Todd Rice, MD, Cody Hamilton, RN, and Sophie Whitaker pose for a photo after receiving their COVID-19 vaccinations. Photo by Donn Jones
On the morning of Thursday, Dec. 17, the first shipment of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine arrived to Vanderbilt University Medical Center’s Central Pharmacy, where the long-awaited cargo was transferred to a freezer set to -80 degrees F for storage.
Within only a few minutes, some of the vials were already administered to several front-line workers from VUMC’s COVID unit. At an event at the Medical Center attended by Gov. Bill Lee and Commissioner of Health Lisa Piercey, MD, Robin Steaban, MSN, RN, Chief Nursing Officer for Vanderbilt University Adult Hospital, vaccinated five COVID front-line workers.
The VUMC Reporter article about that first day is here.
Those who received the first doses of the Pfizer vaccine include Tesha Akins, environmental technician; Lisa Flemmons, MSN, acute care nurse practitioner; Sophie Whitaker, registered respiratory therapist; Cody Hamilton, RN; and Todd Rice, MD, associate professor of Medicine in Allergy, Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine and director of the Medical ICU.
These five volunteers were only the beginning; the next day a carefully-planned mass vaccination of Vanderbilt’s front-line workers began. VUMC’s COVID vaccination plan calls for front-line physicians, nurses and staff, such as those who work with confirmed COVID patients during each shift, to have the first opportunity to receive the vaccine. Through a tiered plan, VUMC’s goal is to vaccinate its entire workforce as additional supplies of vaccine become available.
Over the course of the first two days of the vaccine at Vanderbilt, News and Communications photographers Donn Jones, Erin O. Smith and Susan Urmy documented its arrival and the beginning of the Medical Center’s vaccine program. Here are some images from those days.
