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Friday, March 29, 2024
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UW System announces tuition incentive for vaccine administrators

The UW system announced on Friday that current nursing and pharmacy students working at vaccination sites are eligible to receive $500 dollars of tuition credit. 

Qualified students must work as COVID-19 vaccinators for at least 16 hours between Jan. 1 and March 31 to be eligible for tuition credit, according to University of Wisconsin System Director of Media Relations Mark Pitsch.

The UW System released a similar incentive program back in mid-December. Students who worked in Wisconsin healthcare for at least 50 hours between Dec. 1, 2020, and Feb. 1 were able to receive $500 dollars in tuition credit.

Understaffed hospitals nationwide inspire these incentives, which are primarily intended to help increase the number of hospital workers. The UW aims for students in nursing and pharmacy programs to gain work experience and receive financial rewards. 

Ryann McKinnell — a UW-Madison senior who works at Meriter Hospital as a nursing assistant in the immediate care unit in oncology — provides insight on how UW hospitals are handling the COVID-19 pandemic.  

“There are a lot more precautions to make sure that certain individuals are kept clean and do not come in contact with COVID patients,” McKinnell said. “They try to separate the staff so we are not intermixing. There are times where I have to float to other units since we are so understaffed. This is a national issue and we are extremely understaffed.”

McKinnell notes that passion is the real incentive for healthcare workers at this time. 

“A lot of people are picking up shifts that we do not necessarily have to do,” she said. “I did not have to work 56 hours this past week. This is something I am passionate about and I and many others want to do.” 

While the work is well worth his time, McKinnell also remarked on how working at any hospital during a global pandemic is strenuous and demanding regardless of monetary incentive.

“Communicating without facial expressions was very difficult,” McKinnell said. “We now have to show our emotions through our eyes. This is something everyone has to learn through this pandemic ... When you have to empathize with patients and families who are going through troubling times with just your eyes, it is very different.” 

According to McKinnell, healthcare workers are logging additional hours to help out those in need rather than help satisfy a requirement for tuition credit. 

“If I don’t show up to work, who else is going to do it? I want to make sure your family members are at their next thanksgiving dinner,” said McKinnell. “A lot of nurses prioritize missing their family events in order to make sure others can.”

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Students working at vaccination sites are also given access to the vaccine. In the state of Wisconsin, frontline health care personnel are included as members of Phase 1A. 

“I received both of my vaccines already,” McKinnell said. “Anyone who wanted a vaccine has gotten the vaccine. These vaccines were not forced onto us … The majority of my co-workers have gotten the vaccine.”

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