Skip to content
Link to Mizzou Community Connect Link to UMKC Community Connect
Link to Missouri S&T Community Connect Link to UMSL Community Connect

University of Missouri System

Community Connect

What we do together

  • About
  • All Engagements
  • See Our Impact
Twitter Facebook
  • About
  • All Engagements
  • See Our Impact
Facebook share button Twitter share button
1685721626
UMKC COVID-19, Health Care, Public Health, Rural Health, Vaccinations

UMKC Med School’s New St. Joe Campus Recognized for Vaccine Efforts

The entire class of UMKC med students has been certified and volunteered to give COVID vaccines.

ongoing
Community Engagement
UMKC Med School’s New St. Joe Campus Recognized for Vaccine Efforts
The inaugural class at the UMKC School of Medicine’s new campus at Mosaic Life Care hospital in St. Joseph participates in an orientation session.

It didn’t take long for the inaugural class at the UMKC School of Medicine’s new St. Joseph campus to make an impact on rural medicine.

January, as the COVID vaccines were ramping up, the entire class of 20 UMKC medicine students at Mosaic Life Care in St. Joseph took up the charge to become fully vaccinated vaccinators themselves. For their efforts, the Patterson Family Foundation, a Kansas City family-led foundation promoting rural health care, awarded the school and Mosaic a $15,000 gift to use in recognition and support of their rural medicine vaccination efforts.

“A lot of individuals as well as the medical centers they work for really put a lot of resources, time and energy into getting the (rural) population vaccinated,” said Steve Waldman, M.D., dean of the school’s St. Joseph campus. “This is a very gracious gesture from the Patterson Family Foundation in recognition of the Mosaic-UMKC School of Medicine partnership and our efforts working in tandem to get the rural community vaccinated.”

The School of Medicine opened the St. Joseph campus in January in an effort to address the need for more rural physicians. Waldman said nobody realized just how quickly the effort would begin paying dividends.

UMKC students at Mosaic were only weeks into their medical school training when they became certified to administer vaccines and joined the volunteer effort to reach rural patients. They even administered shots to members of the school’s faculty as part of their vaccine training. 

“The vision of the St. Joseph campus to increase additional rural health care providers was achieved and it occurred just a few weeks into the start of classes,” Waldman said. “In partnership with Mosaic Life Care, 100 percent of our students were trained as vaccinators and 100 percent of them volunteered to administer COVID vaccines. We didn’t have to wait four years for our students to start giving back. It happened immediately."

Davin Turner, D.O., chief medical officer at Mosaic Life Care, said: “The students from UMKC School of Medicine were an amazing resource for Mosaic and their contribution was invaluable. We were honored to work side by side with the students as they assisted with our vaccination efforts. We could not have administered the more than 47,000 first and second doses without their tireless efforts. To have them part of our Mosaic community has been an immediate benefit, and we can’t thank them enough. We are grateful others such as the Patterson Family Foundation recognized their efforts as well.”

The gift from the Patterson Foundation will be used to reward and recognize those who gave their time and in some cases took the risk early on to volunteer before being fully vaccinated.

Waldman said part of the funds would also go to training additional vaccinators.

“Hopefully they’ll never be needed, but we’re excited about being a lot more prepared,” he said.

Story by: Kelly Edwards

Published: Jun 22, 2021

UMKC School of Medicine

Location

  5325 Faraon St, St Joseph, MO 64506, USA

Most Recently Added

UMKC Accepting Proposals for Destination Development Near Streetcar Stop

UMKC

Geography 2050 STL Symposium – Feeding Our Future Planet

UMSL

Community-Centered Leadership: Practicing DEI in our Organizations and Communities

UMKC

Save the Date: UM System Extension & Engagement Week-2023

UMKC

0

Explore More Engagements

<< UMKC to Sponsor Special Olympics Missouri’s KC Block Party
Community-Centered Leadership: Practicing DEI in our Organizations and Communities >>

Explore More Engagements

<< UMKC to Sponsor Special Olympics Missouri’s KC Block Party
UMKC Celebration
Community-Centered Leadership: Practicing DEI in our Organizations and Communities >>
UMKC Continuing Education, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, Nonprofit
  • University of Missouri System Community Connect
  • Mizzou Community Connect
  • UMKC Community Connect
  • Missouri S&T Community Connect
  • UMSL Community Connect
  • UM System
  • University of Missouri – Columbia
  • University of Missouri – Kansas City
  • Missouri University of Science and Technology
  • University of Missouri – St. Louis
  • About Community Connect
  • Login
  • Contact
um system seal
Copyright ©2023 Curators of the University of Missouri. All Rights Reserved.