Fort Worth Medical Students Build Teamwork, Trust at TCU Vaccination Clinic

When Texas Christian University and Baylor Scott & White Health began planning a joint community vaccine site, leaders of the TCU and UNTHSC School of Medicine wanted their medical students to have a front and center role.

“It was a tremendous opportunity for them to serve the community. We all agreed that it would be amazing to partner with Baylor Scott & White Health and allow some of the medical students to do the vaccinations,” said Danika Franks, M.D., assistant dean of Student Affairs at TCU and UNTHSC School of Medicine.

Every Saturday for 10 weekends, School of Medicine first- and second-year students made up half of the vaccinators at the drive-thru vaccination clinics, which administered 18,922 COVID-19 vaccines to Tarrant County residents over a span of 12 weeks. In all, 91 School of Medicine students — 75% of the two classes — participated in the vaccination clinics.

“Our students forthright and outright are amazing servant leaders. We see it in our admissions process. Service is one of the top items of discussion, whether they are asking us about opportunities to serve or whether they are sharing about how they have already served. It infiltrates into the students we select and what they want to do during their time here at the School of Medicine,” Franks said.

TCU and UNTHSC School of Medicine students are always primed and ready to serve. Through the School of Medicine’s Learning Communities, students regularly volunteer in Fort Worth’s North Side, Diamond Hill, Como, Eastside and Stop Six communities.

“Even apart from this vaccination effort, they are constantly serving within those communities. So this was just a very natural conduit in terms in how they are wired as individuals as well as who we are and what we believe in the School of Medicine. Our curriculum really focuses on compassion and empathy,” Franks said.

Behind the scenes, a Student Affairs logistical planning group met weekly to ensure there were 18 School of Medicine student vaccinators as well as ample faculty volunteers to supervise each vaccination clinic.

On the curricular side, Kevin Kunkler, M.D., executive director for simulation education, innovation and research at the School of Medicine, led the student training effort. After completing a training module, students had to demonstrate their expertise in being able to administer the intramuscular injection.

“I want to commend the group who stepped up to the plate and took their job descriptions further by giving extra hours. There were well over 90 hours that this group contributed to making this successful on top of what they already do at the School of Medicine, and I think that is just an amazing example of how committed both our curriculum and Student Affairs teams are to being part of our local community and to helping our students be successful in their service to Fort Worth,” Franks said.

“The students represented our school to our community with strength, accuracy and compassion in a time that is truly unprecedented. I know they will never forget this. This kind of service will be something they look back on and will shape the future of their careers. I’m obviously very proud of who they are as students,” Franks said.

The bonding experience from the effort will long be felt by students, faculty and staff.

“Anytime you roll your sleeves up and serve together, the type of bonds you form as a team are things hard to simulate in any other environment. I think this experience helped students realize how much of an impact they can have. It also helped to further their identities as professionals in training. For our School of Medicine faculty and staff, it has contributed to our ability to recognize the impact we have beyond the day in and day out work in Student Affairs or training within the curriculum and to see how that directly impacts the communities we live in. There’s no better way to improve the dynamics of teamwork, trust and camaraderie than to do work together side by side,” Franks said.

The vaccination effort also demonstrated TCU’s long-standing commitment to the Fort Worth and Tarrant County communities.

“Obviously TCU is an excellent place to be trained and educated and to grow as a professional in many different arenas, but I think this also helped the community to remember TCU’s deep commitment to the overall Fort Worth and Tarrant County area by serving in a profound way during a very unprecedented time during the pandemic,” Franks said.

TCU and UNTHSC School of Medicine COVID-19 vaccination drive volunteers

Student Vaccinators:

AJ Agana, Aya Al-Adli, Arsalan Ali, Amber Broderick, McKenna Chalman, Hermen Charrez-Baxcajay, Kathryn Biddle, Sarah Cheema, Briana Collins, Shanice Cox, Shawn Cudworth, Emma DiFiore, Alleyna Dougherty, Caden Duffy, Noah Embry, Dakota Endsley, Sam Evans, Navid Farahani, Karena Fassett, Christopher Fernandes, Arman Fijany, Sam Fink, Sam Finkenstaedt, Kassidy Fretz, Madeleine Gallagher, Vandana Garg, Coltin Gerhart, Kashmeera Giga, Amber Hawkins, Jack Healy, KJ Herbert, Mary Howerton, Joe Hoyle, Antonio Igbokidi, Benjamin Jacobs, Nikki Jamieson, Alec Jessen, Sereena Jivraj, Kavneet Kaur, Madeline Keane, Faria Khimani, Areeba Khwaja, Charna Kinard, Michael Kranz, Jonas Kruse, Henri Levy, Quinn Losefsky, Ryan Lucker, Sarah Lyon, Ali Mahfuz, Brandon Mallory, Zachary Miles, Paige Miller, Will Mitchell, Lauren Moore, Alina Moroz, Amir Mostafavi, Krithi Narimetla, Hira Nazim, Grace Newell, Yolancee Nguyen, Suju Ojha, Matthew Pagano, Sarah Person, Rachel Rice, Leticia Rivera, Connor Rodriguez, Adam Rosencrans, Tom Roser, Meaghan Rousset, Danielle Sadler, Nathalie Scherer, Dilan Shah, Juhi Shah, Anne Shirley Hoselton, Kyle Simon, Josiah Snowden, Rebecca Sobolewski, Alex Tolman, Prema Vyas, Alexandra Waller, Shelby Wildish, Sophie Wix, Adam Wolf, Ariel Woods, Ilana Zago and Daniel Zeter.

Vaccination Clinic SOM Student Leaders:

Edmundo Esparza, Sam Evans, Lauren Moore and Sarah Person

Faculty Volunteers:

Danika Franks, Debra Atkisson, Mike Bernas, Jennifer Coffman, Chase Crossno, Jim Cox, Tom Deas, Layla Edwards, Linh Ho, Ken Hopper, Collin O’Hara, Steve Scott, Frank Sloan, Hanna Smitherman and Emily Todd.