Sacred Heart University nursing students were among the first to administer the COVID-19 vaccine to patients in Connecticut.
Many of the students were on the front lines working at Danbury Hospital last month.
Mary Alice Donius is the school’s dean of the Davis and Henley College of Nursing. She said these students are participating in something that will go down in history.
"As I told the students, this will be in their family lore, generations will talk about how their grandmothers and grandfathers administered the vaccine for the 2020 pandemic,” Donius said.
Donius said nearly 165 senior student nurses in the clinical program will take part as vaccinations continue throughout the semester.
Senior Michaela Christie is one of those nurses working at Danbury Hospital. She’s administered the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines to priority healthcare workers.
Christie has a message to those who are on the fence of getting the vaccine, when their turn comes.
"Right now, we are in the middle of a pandemic and cases are rising faster than we can keep up with and like I said earlier, the fact that there is something we can do now, I say put that at the forefront of your mind and how much good it’s going to do," Christie said.
The university will also explore the possibility of becoming a regional mass vaccination site this year.
Sacred Heart University is the licensee of WSHU Public Radio.