CHED: Nursing, medical students to serve as vaccinators

MANILA, Philippines — Post-graduate and undergraduate interns, clinical clerks, graduating medical students and nursing graduates can now serve as vaccinators in the ongoing National COVID-19 Vaccine Deployment and Vaccination Program, the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) announced yesterday.

Under Joint Memorandum Circular (JMC) 2021-003 titled “Interim Guidelines on the Voluntary Participation of Postgraduate/Undergraduate Interns, Clinical Clerks and Fourth Year Nursing Students in the COVID-19 Vaccine Deployment and Vaccination Program,” CHED and the Department of Health (DOH) are allowing students to volunteer as health screeners, vaccinators and pre- or post-vaccination monitors under the supervision of licensed physicians and nurses.

The JMC provides guidance to participating higher education institutions (HEIs), hospitals with national internship programs, and all governance levels participating in the national vaccination program.

“The government is now fast-tracking the vaccination rollout as more COVID-19 vaccines arrive in the country,” said CHED Chairman Popoy De Vera.

Yesterday and for the second time, the country breached the one million daily target for vaccination, he added.

“As we increase the number of vaccination sites and increase daily targets, these additional vaccinators and support staff are critical to achieve herd immunity in the next two months,” De Vera said.

CHED has been pushing for school-based vaccination in all big private and public HEIs since October. So far, 61 HEIs are now functioning as vaccination centers all over the country.

“While more than one million college students have already been vaccinated, this is only about 30 percent of the target number. We need to rapidly vaccinate more students,” De Vera said.

He said CHED is targeting to finish the first-dose vaccination of 100 percent of tertiary students this month.

De Vera said the post-graduate/undergraduate interns, clinical clerks and fourth year nursing students who volunteer for the national vaccination program will be trained and supervised by health professionals.

Their volunteer work and completed number of hours will be credited in their internship and certified by the head of vaccination team in the vaccination site where they rendered service, he said.