Iona Nursing Students Get Hands-On Experience At Vaccine Clinics

NEW ROCHELLE, NY — A once-in-a-generation pandemic has afforded students of Iona College’s new bachelor’s degree program a chance to make an immediate impact on public health.

Over 550 New Rochelle community members are now protected against the coronavirus, thanks in part to the nursing students. The students were able to earn some real-world clinical experience at the same time.

Sandra Davé, the director of Iona’s Nursing Clinical Arts Center, enlisted the nurses-in-training to give coronavirus vaccine shots at six clinics at her private practice. She said that while administering injections is a routine task for nurses, the vaccination endeavor proved to be more emotional than expected.

“We had an instance where we actually had a patient burst into tears,” Davé said. “One of our students went to comfort her, and she was saying, ‘No, no, these are tears of joy.’ And then she spun around and said, ‘Actually, they’re mixed with tears of sorrow, because I lost a lot of people through the pandemic.’”

Davé has been practicing in New Rochelle for more than two decades. She has been with Iona since the inception of the school’s nursing program.

“It feels humbling,” nursing student Nico O’Leary said. “This has been a horrible year for everyone. So, the fact that we’re able to give back in this way is enormous.”

Students who took part in the recent large-scale vaccination efforts pointed to the school's commitment to making these types of opportunities available as one of the reasons for opting to study at Iona’s relatively new nursing program.

“Looking at all the other nursing programs that are in progress now, we’re one of the only ones that has been able to facilitate having classes in person and going to clinical hours in person,” student Jonah Murasso said. “We’re one of the only programs that has actually made it into hospitals as students. That really validates my choice.”

The bachelor's degree program in nursing offers two paths to a degree. Students can enroll in a four-year undergraduate program or a 15-month second degree. Iona accepted its first class of 18 elite, accelerated degree students in the fall of 2020. Those students will graduate this year.