The expectations and key timings of each vaccination team should be clearly communicated to all staff, and particularly Vaccination Team Leads during onboarding training.
Day schedule
The typical vaccination team day should be defined during campaign planning and teams should be expected to adhere to timings.
An example schedule for a vaccination team:
07:00 - Pack. All vaccination staff meet at their Hub to pack their equipment for the day.
07:20 - Briefing. Morning briefing from Hub leadership to Tam Leads to give updates.
07:30 - Depart. All teams leave the Hub to travel to their assigned vaccination location.
08:00 - Morning session. Vaccination work commences.
12:00 - Lunch. Break for Lunch.
13:00 - Afternoon session. Vaccination work recommences.
16:30 - Return. Vaccination ends and team departs the field.
17:00 - Unpack. Teams arrive at hub and return equipment.
Team equipment
It is very important to make sure the vaccination teams have the required equipment to effectively and safely vaccinate the dogs in their working area.
The following equipment lists are per vaccination team and have been divided into essential items, optional but useful items and vaccination method-dependent items.
Backpack containing:
- Needles (1 per dog plus spare for drawing up vaccine) - 21/22G x 5/8 inch up to 1inch maximum
- Syringes (1 per 5-10 dogs) - 2.5ml to 5ml maximum
- Smartphone
- Vaccine Slips (1 per dog) - Must contain date, vaccine type and batch number
- Rabies Education Flyers (1 per dog)
- Sharps Containers for safe disposal of sharps (it could be a plastic bottle)
- Local permission letters
- Sturdy rubbish bag
- First aid kit
Cool box (5L) containing:
- Frozen ice packs (1 or 2 depending on size) or ice (in case ice is used, make sure ice is securely kept in a plastic bag or equivalent to minimise water leak)
- Dividing cloth separating the vaccines and ice packs
- 200 doses of vaccine in 20 x 10ml vaccine vials (10ml is ideal for a mass vaccination campaign, however if only 1ml is available, this is okay but less vaccines may fit into the cool box)
- Vaccine stickers (if a vaccine shipment comes in 10ml vials, they are often accompanied by vaccine stickers which can be used on the vaccine slips)
Optional but useful
- Animal friendly paint stick – to temporarily mark vaccinated dogs. The mark could be used to conduct post-vaccination survey.
- Slip dog leads – thick ones only to avoid harming the dogs if they pull against the lead.
- Power banks – smartphones in constant use through the working day may not retain their charge for the whole day. Therefore power banks as a back up are useful to keep the team working.
- Spare notebook and pen – back up data recording and note taking.
- Printed copy of the project Standard Operating Procedures & Official Campaign Permissions/order.
- Printed contact card with all essential project contact details.
- Banners advertising the campaign to be attached to cars/Tuk Tuks.
- Loudspeakers to announce the presence of the vaccination team.
- A dog catching net.
Vaccination method-dependent
- Foldable tables and chairs (if not available at the central point location)
- Cones and tape for crowd control
- Dog Catching nets (1 per catcher)