CINCINNATI, Ohio—As more vaccines become available, more people are needed to administer them. Which is where pharmacy students come in. 


What You Need To Know

  • Learning how to give vaccinations is nothing new for pharmacy students

  • But during this pandemic, the students realize how critical it is to learn how to give vaccines so that they can help administer the COVID-19 vaccine

  • Older students have already been a part of the process, giving the vaccine to the community's most vulnerable

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Learning how to give vaccinations in pharmacy school is nothing new. 

“Basically, this is the first time for real getting to do this," first-year pharmacy student Sarah Lowery said.

For Lowery, it’s not the most anticipated portion of her skills class during her first year as a pharmacy student at the University of Cincinnati.

“My partner today, we’re both don’t really like needles but this is so important that we’re going to get over that fear together I think!” she said.

But she knows it’s more important than ever for her and her classmates to learn how to give vaccines. But first she needs to practice.

“The one’s that are this size, these are the IM’s and so you inject it straight in," Lowery explained. "But these you have to do at a 45 degree angle.”

Fourth-year student Godfred Mantey is not only able to administer the vaccine-- he's had the shots himself -- and he's volunteering his time to make sure the most vulnerable in the Cincinnati community are able to get protected.

“This is a really exciting time to be a pharmacist or to be a pharmacy student," Mantey said. "And I think that pushing you to go to the frontlines to help patients or even to get access to the vaccine is just incredible.”

While Lowery is hopeful to be able to do that soon, she says she’s inspired just by learning alongside her classmates to get to that point.

“To actually know that I’ll be able to help with the vaccination especially considering we don’t really have a lot of people to help do it," she said. "So just being able to add that extra person. Plus my whole class which is really exciting because we’re all kind of going through this together.”