Friends Select Hosts an In-house Vaccination Clinic for Employees

As various COVID-19 vaccines were approved in early 2021, Friends Select School nurse Kelly Papianou P’29 and director of city curriculum Margaret Smith developed a resource for faculty and staff seeking guidance on where and when they could receive immunizations. Kelly and Margaret, both members of Friends Select’s COVID-19 Response Task Force, created a shared document with links to county health departments, pharmacies, forms, and real-time updates to information that was ever changing, and eventually, other employees contributed their own findings. “The silver lining of a time-consuming task was every email and text lead I received from faculty and staff. Anyone who gleaned any information about possible vaccine options rushed to make sure it was shared with the community, and it helped,” said Margaret. “Having that front-row seat into our community’s desire to crowdsource information that could be helpful to others was really beautiful.”

Weeks before vaccines were approved by the city of Philadelphia for teachers, Kelly was steadfastly working toward her goal of hosting an in-house vaccination clinic for Friends Select faculty and staff. “As we were gathering resources for where people could individually go, I was also looking for any private pharmacies that could help us,” said Kelly. Once she decided on Centennial Pharmacy Services, Philadelphia’s largest independent pharmacy, Kelly worked to gather the necessary information from those interested in receiving their vaccine so the provider could operate efficiently. “We had had everything we needed for Centennial Pharmacy to conduct our vaccination clinic for over a month; we just needed the go ahead from the state and the city that Friends Select employees were eligible,” she explained. “By spring break, the majority of Friends Select’s employees, as well as staff from Friends Childcare Center, were fully vaccinated at the school’s two-part, in-house clinic.”

Kelly continued to work with Centennial to ensure Friends Select families and students aged 12 and older received immunizations through an appointment-based service offered at the pharmacy’s locations. In addition to maintaining communication regarding vaccine information and accessibility through the weekly Bulletin for families and employees, Kelly also focused on data collection. “An important factor that remains is collecting information from the community regarding who has received the vaccine,” she said. At the end of the 2020-21 academic year, Kelly estimated more than 80% of Friends Select employees had been vaccinated, with over half receiving their doses through the school’s in-house clinic. 

Kelly, Margaret, and the COVID-19 Response Task Force then worked together to update the school’s health and safety protocols during the summer, while continuing to emphasize the importance of getting a vaccine for those who were eligible, in order to open the building safely for the 2021-22 academic year. “It was again a busy summer as the COVID-19 Response Task Force was able to identify what mitigating factors we could peel back due to changes in restrictions. Still, it’s important to continue to use the best practices that we’ve learned from the pandemic experience—the importance of good hand washing and staying home when sick—so that we can protect ourselves and others,” Kelly explained.

“Everyone is still adhering to protocols, concerned about variants, and eagerly awaiting more information about booster shots,” Margaret added. “But the COVID-19 vaccines have certainly made our community feel safer.”