U of A and the Pat Walker Health Center Win the Innovation Award for Vaccine Challenge

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From the left: Breeanne Carter; Heather Mercer, executive director of ImmunizeAR; and Leslie Adams.

The U of A participated in a College Flu/COVID Vaccination Challenge with several other colleges and universities across the state of Arkansas. The U of A was named the winner of the 2022-2023 Innovation Award due to the robust marketing efforts from Pat Walker Health Center and several campus partners spreading the word about the contest. 

The challenge was for the U of A to get the most undergraduate students to self-report as receiving their flu vaccine and their COVID-19 bivalent booster in a Arkansas Immunization Action Coalition (ImmunizeAR) survey. Although the U of A did not win the overall challenge, we did win the Innovation Award for the innovative ways we encouraged students, faculty and staff to get the flu vaccine and COVID-19 booster.  

Pat Walker Health Center's number one concern is the health and safety of the campus community, which is why the health center encourages the campus community to get annual flu shots and the COVID bivalent booster to help lower the rate of flu and COVID, as well as reduce the severity of illness if a person does contract the flu and/or COVID.  

"After only competing in this competition for two flu seasons with ImmunizeAR, I was very excited to learn that the U of A Fayetteville campus won the Most Innovative Award," said Leslie Adams, director of nursing at the Pat Walker Health Center. "We worked hard to get word out to the campus community that a) they should get their flu and COVID vaccines, and b) they should fill out the ImmunizeAR survey to show that they had received their vaccines. We want to say 'thank you' to all who completed the survey. We only hope that we win again next year for the 2023-2024 flu/COVID season!" 

Breeanne Carter, assistant director for marketing and communications for the Pat Walker Health Center, informed and encouraged the campus community to receive their vaccines and to complete the ImmunizeAR survey through various messaging. Carter displayed the survey rules and QR code for the survey in the medical clinics' exam rooms, oversaw a social media campaign from October to December and worked with campus partners to spread the message in e-newsletters and on physical and digital signs across several buildings and dorms on campus.  

"Winning this award would not have been possible without the help of my social media intern, Averi Pick, and several other campus partners that re-posted or shared our content on social media, and those that displayed physical and digital signs in campus buildings and spread the word in e-newsletters," Carter said. "I am grateful to all that bought in to helping make this campaign a success and to adding to the list of ways we could be innovative in spreading the message." 

The health center's social media campaign consisted of:  

• A reminder post about flu season 

• A social media giveaway of three $50 Amazon gift cards  

• A video that asked students "Can you get your flu shot on campus? How do you make an appointment?" 

• A video that featured Dr. Huda Sharaf, medical director of the health center, who explained the importance of the flu vaccine and COVID booster 

• A video with step-by-step instructions that showed how to complete the ImmunizeAR survey 

To view the entire social media campaign of posts, stories and videos, follow @uofahealth on Instagram.  

If any faculty, staff or students still need to receive the flu vaccine or COVID-19 bivalent booster, you can schedule an appointment at myhealth.uark.edu or call 479-575-4451. Even though flu season typically ends after March, the flu vaccine is available at the Pat Walker Health Center through the end of June.