Delivering a Sub Zero Temperature Vaccine in the Tropics
Yana Albrey1
1 Royal Darwin & Palmerston Hospitals
Delivering the COVID-19 vaccine program has been the biggest vaccination campaign roll out ever undertaken in Australia. The Royal Darwin Hospital is the only tertiary referral centre in the Top End of the Northern Territory, serving a sparsely populated area of over half a million km2. As the Northern Territory’s first Pfizer hub, we provided vaccinations for all eligible people in phase 1a of the COVID-19 vaccination roll out. The tropical climate, remote location and culturally diverse population of whom 30% identify as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander people, provided a unique backdrop for the roll out.
A multidisciplinary collaboration between Pharmacists, Infection Control Nurses, Primary Health Care, Infectious Diseases specialists and Public Health staff among others has resulted in a hospital compliance rate of over 90% for over 4000 multidisciplinary staff. A COVID-19 safe vaccine roll out also presented challenges and opportunities with a high priority placed on preserving the safety and integrity of the only tertiary hospital in Darwin. Vaccination of the quarantine workforce at the Centre for National resilience was also incorporated into workflows using a hub and spoke approach. Fear, anxiety and misinformation was addressed through weekly staff Q&A sessions as well as a dedicated COVID resource team.
The continuing campaign has now extended to a program designed to capture our vulnerable inpatients for whom access, and hesitancy are acting as key barriers to vaccination uptake. With this new program it is hoped to provide both education and access in order to increase the level of protection both within the hospital and the wider community.
Biography:
Yana Albrey is currently the Clinical Nurse Manager of the Infection Prevention and Management unit at Royal Darwin and Palmerston hospitals in the Northern Territory. Yana is an experienced Infection Control Practitioner with previous roles as both a Clinical Nurse at Fiona Stanley Hospital, and a Clinical Nurse Specialist at Fremantle Hospital in Perth, Western Australia.
Yana was recently responsible for successfully leading Standard 3 through hospital accreditation as well as supporting the hospital’s Covid Resource Team with their Covid response and vaccination rollout. Yana is passionate about vaccination and is hoping to contribute to further research in this area.
The Territory has provided unique experiences and challenges in infection control and Yana hopes to continue advancing her knowledge in tropical medicine and indigenous health as they relate to infection control.