LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Medical, nursing, and public health students at the University of Louisville are helping with efforts to vaccinate the public at the city's mass vaccination site. 

The drive-thru site at Broadbent Arena provides hands-on experience that has been hard to come by because of the COVID-19 pandemic, said Dr. Whitney Nash, assistant vice president of Interprofessional Practice Partnerships at the University of Louisville School of Nursing.

"We've been restricted on how many students we can have in those clinical settings, so this provides an additional opportunity, not just for the injection, but for patient interaction," she said. "This is an opportunity to really demonstrate as a young adult, we do have a large population of people who want to give back and want to be part of the solution, not part of the problem." 

Students will be screening patients and administering the vaccine twice a week for at least five weeks, according to Nash.

Nursing student Som Subba is preparing to graduate in May and watched her father battle COVID-19 symptoms for a month, she said.

"I just feel happy that I am part of this, and part of the solution," Subba said. 

Patients arriving to the Kentucky Expo Center this week are in the 1B category, including first responders, corrections personnel and K-12 educators. 

To apply for an appointment to be vaccinated in Louisville, click here.