Volunteering - San Francisco H1N1 Vaccinations

Alright, I was able to make it this time.

I had no experience, and didn't speak multiple languages, so I ended up being assigned to... I'm not quite sure of the title... but it was part of the whole data collection system.

As people came in, as a standard procedure, people had to fill out some forms giving all the relevant medical information, and as the vaccine was administered, the forms had to be checked off as to what form of the vaccine was given.  This was to keep an eye on supply and most likely to keep track of relevant statistics.

So as forms got filled out, they got taken back to the back room where I and a partner were, where we kept tally of how many were brought into us, and where we sorted them out into relevant age groups and counted again.  (0-24 months, 2-4, 5-18, 19-24, 25-49, 50-65, and 65+ years)

Sounds simple, and sounds repetitive, and it was.  I wouldn't want to do that every day, but it is of course important, and I didn't mind contributing my time for something like that for one day.  And because we inherited about a thousand forms as we started second shift, and were receiving 550 to 800 forms an hour, there wasn't much down time with just two of us handling the job.  The first shift had seven volunteers working with them, and they left us a backlog of forms.  I guess we set up a extremely efficient system, which was kind of nice to realize.

We also had access to the evaluation forms that people were filling out.  A lot of people came in with low expectations of how the whole thing would be run, but, for the most part, they all left with those expectations proved wrong.  That's nice to know.  Both about the public perception of the Department of Public Health, and knowing that their minds have been changed.

Overall, it was a pretty interesting experience.  Some day in the future I'll be able to administer vaccines or prepare them, since I'll be qualified to do so.  That'll be a good day.