The Hub

This is what interprofessional education looks like

“Everyone was invited to take part in something bigger than their course syllabus, bigger than the University and bigger than themselves.”

A med student, a nursing student and a public health student sit, talking to a patient. No joke. It’s a regular day at the Pitt Vaccination and Health Connection Hub. The Hub, for short, is the latest brick-and-mortar space for interprofessional health sciences education on the Pittsburgh campus.

Designed as a kind of health concierge service on campus, the Hub offers wellness screenings to Pitt employees; provides adult vaccinations to the entire Pitt community and the public by appointment or on a walk-in basis (five days a week and year-round); and supports interprofessional, experiential learning opportunities for the next generation of health care professionals who are training at Pitt.  

“In the classroom, we learn a lot about the power of a cohesive interdisciplinary team, but the opportunities to see that truly coming to fruition are limited,” says Julianna Keith, a nursing student, who kept volunteering at the Hub in 2022, even after completing her requisite inpatient clinical hours. “Everyone was part of a team. Everyone was invited to take part in something bigger than their course syllabus, bigger than the University and bigger than themselves.”

Born out of Pitt’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, the Hub (previously called Pitt CoVax) needed to focus efforts in its early days on getting people vaccinated for COVID-19. Thousands of Pitt’s neighbors reached out to the Hub for help as the vaccines became available. Speedy and equitable distribution was the priority.

In spring 2023, the clinic expanded to offer other adult vaccines (shingles, pneumococcal, tetanus, mpox), more recently it’s been rolling out travel vaccinations. The Hub provided nearly 11,500 vaccinations in fiscal year 2022-23.

“It was powerful to get to know and build strong interprofessional relationships with different specialties than mine,” says Rebecca Brown, a Pitt Med student in the Physician Scientist Training Program. “The experience cemented some humility in me. I will be a doctor one day, and I am only one small aspect of a care team. My time working in [the Hub] solidified my respect and gratitude for others’ roles, too.”