Dr. Nancy Waite, UW pharmacy professor, highlights student work as she accepts the Minister of Colleges and Universities’ Award of Excellence in the category of Everyday Hero for boosting vaccination rates and improving Ontarians’ health.
Dr. Waite’s research before and during the COVID-19 pandemic as a pharmacist and researcher played a crucial role in making vaccines more accessible. Her research ensured that pharmacists could administer vaccines, removing key barriers like inconvenience and unavailability.
Dr. Waite’s dedication to increasing vaccination rates persists, as she has optimized the role of pharmacists into becoming top immunizers in Ontario. She also contributed to the UW on-campus vaccine clinic, located at the school of pharmacy, which gave close to 80,000 COVID-19 vaccine doses.
However, Dr. Waite’s work during the pandemic was not without its challenges. “It was just ongoing chaos management… we were exhausted,” said Dr. Waite. “I will just say the number of people who came up and thanked those of us working on getting vaccines to people was amazing… it almost makes me cry even now.”
The pandemic was a time filled with a sense of unknowing, and that feeling wasn’t uncommon amongst Dr. Waite and other pharmacists either. “I’ve never been in a situation where I didn’t know what was around the next corner every day,” said Dr. Waite. “You would think that pharmacists and researchers in the vaccine space would know when the ministry was going to come out with some new guidance, right? They did try to get us information, but it wasn’t uncommon for us to be hearing it hours earlier than the public or at the same time as the public.”
Student contribution to the research in this space was vital. “So many students get involved and they’re so passionate and they’ve contributed in great ways,” said Dr. Waite. “My grad students, but a lot of our undergrad students too, are involved in independent study with us or co-op and contribute enough to be on our publications as authors… They bring a fresh and great perspective to it as they’re learning, but they teach us things as they go along as well.”
Learning from the challenges of the pandemic, Dr. Waite advises budding researchers and students to find motivation in the passion for their work and have an open mind. “I think that’s the key — persistence and finding things that you are truly passionate about,” said Dr. Waite. “This is your chance to explore and keep going.”
A variety of disciplines can participate in pharmacy and healthcare as well and everyone brings a unique asset. “I’ve hired students from sociology and communications and, yes, pharmacy, but also science or engineering,” said Dr. Waite. “Whatever your skill set is, you know what you bring.”
Congratulations to Dr. Nancy Waite for winning the Everyday Hero Minister’s Award of Excellence. To learn more about Dr. Waite’s work, click this link.
