COVID vaccines: then and now

As we start a new year, I wanted to write about an area of forward-looking practice development, maybe the new national nursing research strategy, or developments in nurse education or patient experience—but it is very difficult to get any headspace to consider much other than the continued response to COVID-19. This includes but is not limited to the impact of workforce absence, our aims to recover the elective care pathway, or our response to the urgent care pathway and patient flow constraints, as areas that are dominating most of our time.

However, I have taken some time to reflect, 1 year on from when I administered the first in the world out-of-trial Oxford Astra Zeneca vaccine. Looking back at the media coverage and response from colleagues and the public, it was a time of pride that a UK-based team had succeeded in developing a vaccine that was now licensed for use. In common with many colleagues, we had set up a vaccine centre, which offered vaccination in line with the national policy to health and social care colleagues and members of the public.