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Every fall semester, Student Health Services (SHS) and the nursing department team up and give free flu shots to the community and students took advantage on Monday in the quad.

The main purpose of giving free flu shots during the fall is to try to prevent as many people in the community from getting the flu during the winter and the year coming up. Because the flu can be a very serious illness, getting the flu shot is the best way to protect against getting the flu.

“There’s a lot of deaths every year because of the flu causing complications and pneumonias, etcetera, and a life is a terrible thing to waste so this is a great preventative,” said Carmita Veliz, a registered nurse specialist at SHS.

Although the flu shots are free to the public, the program’s main target is uninsured students.

“We would love to be able to have students who don’t have insurance get it free because that’s our greatest population,” said Veliz.

SHS also provides a safe environment and takes precautions while giving the flu shots by having the student nurses be supervised by their instructor and supervised by Veliz. They also have emergency kits and items such as epi pens and Benadryl. Additionally, they have a phone specifically to call campus police for back up if an emergency were to occur.

Not only is this a great way to prevent the flu and help the community but it gives hands on experience to nursing students in the nursing program at PCC.

“The first year RN students or the first year LPN students will help us do the flu shots, and it gives students the experience to do this, community hours and makes them feel part of the community they are in” says Veliz.

As students wait in line and fill out forms to get their shot, nursing professor Jeong O helps students with any questions they have.

“This is a great experience for students, not only for the ones giving the injections, but for all the students and community because they get to interact and communicate with the public and get to know our students on campus” said O.

Students overall felt they were in a safe environment and were thankful they were able to receive the flu shot for free.

“The flu shot is really good because it promotes community help and it’s also a good experience for the nurses and the community because Pasadena in itself is a community based city already. So as long as we promote it, it’s great,” said student Nancy Wong.

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