The UK has a severe coronavirus pandemic, and the health care system is man-crunched. To advance vaccination, the UK is recruiting a total of 30,000 volunteers to serve as temporary nurses.
After intensive training, they will join the army of nurses to vaccinate the public against the novel coronavirus.
According to AFP on February 1, the British Ambulance Agency of St. John is responsible for recruiting these volunteers.
The conditions for selection include reaching the age of 18, having a secondary school education, and no criminal record.
After preliminary selection, volunteers first complete 15 hours of online learning, and then go to the training center to start hands-on operation.
“Vaccinates are at risk of allergies, and screening for allergies will be done by professional nurses, but to be done to be just in case, volunteers also need to learn how to respond to various emergencies,” Carl Fazacley, a faculty member at St. John Ambulance told media reporters.
After the hands-on training, volunteers need to be tested in a simulated vaccination center.
Fazakley said the UK’s health care system, the National Health Service (NHS), is under great pressure from the coronavirus pandemic and it is impossible to meet the vaccination goals set by the government by relying on the NHS alone.” Volunteers are essential to get a mass vaccination.”
The UK launched a vaccination program in early December last year, and plans to complete the vaccination of 15 million people in the country who are more vulnerable to the novel coronavirus by mid-February this year.
According to the data released by the British government on January 31, the country added more than 21,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 587 new deaths that day.
