Touro Cares MVP
Our Touro Cares Mobile Vaccination Program (MVP) is one such effort, helping underserved communities overcome barriers to vaccination by taking the clinics directly to them.
The Covid-19 global pandemic brought with it a host of new challenges and various ways to serve the community in which Touro California resides.
- 6,500
- guests served
- 2,500
- vaccine doses administered
- 5,000+
- volunteer hours
The MVP Story
Partnering with Kaiser Permanente, Sutter Health and Solano Public Health, The Child and Adult Resource Education and Support Mobile Vaccination Program, or CARES MVP, has worked tirelessly to improve vaccination rates in underserved communities by setting up mobile clinics in churches, elementary and middle school sites and other neighborhood sites to make accessibility as easy as possible.
The program’s goal of improving vaccination rates has worked with MVP surpassing passing the 1,000 vaccination mark in January 2022.
MVP Leadership
Dr. Fatima Hernandez heads the program, with guidance and input from Dr. Lucinda Chan of the Touro University California College of Pharmacy.
Drs. Hernandez and Chan, along with other Touro preceptors, are there in a supervisory role, but much of the work at the clinics is done by an interdisciplinary group of TUC students from the PA, nursing, medicine and pharmacy programs.
Student Involvement
Students are trained to administer vaccinations and serve important leadership roles, as well. Training for the clinics includes learning methods to address vaccination hesitancy and how to remain patient with guests who are reluctant to be vaccinated for various reasons.
Students have been able to overcome language barriers by speaking to guests in Spanish, Vietnamese, Punjabi, Japanese and more.
While addressing the overall goal of improving vaccination rates, students also gain critical clinical skills.
Covid forced many students to forego clinical experiences in 2020, but the MVP clinics allow many to interact directly with clinic guests and gain valuable educational experience.
Success
Since the first vaccine clinic, MVP has helped provide service to more than 6,500 guests, administer nearly 2,500 vaccine doses and benefitted from more than 5,000 volunteer hours.