COVID Partnerships within Nashville

People of color and ethnic populations have been impacted by COVID-19 disproportionately. Black people have died from COVID-19 at 1.4 times the rate of white people. Today, Black and Hispanic people are less likely to receive a vaccine, leaving them at increased risk.

As soon as COVID-19 vaccines were available, faculty from the Vanderbilt University School of Nursing paired with Vanderbilt University Medical Center to launch a mobile vaccination program to bring COVID-19 vaccines to the underrepresented, uninsured and vaccine hesitant.

Assistant Professor Carrie Plummer recruited and planned with community groups to pair with, while Assistant Professor Christian Ketel focused on going door to door. The result: More than 2,000 people in the Hispanic, Somalian, Kurdish, homeless and low-income communities have been vaccinated. The School of Nursing/VUMC are also doing pop-up events with faith-based Hispanic communities at Catholic churches on Sundays and other area churches. A good area of outreach has been partnering with Metropolitan Development and Housing Authority low-income housing communities, where we find a great deal of success with education about the vaccine’s safety and benefits. Volunteers helping with the VUSN/VUMC Mobile Vaccine Program include VUSN students and faculty, VUSN alumni, VUSM students and faculty, VUMC staff and faculty and students from other area universities.