Intersectoral Cooperation Between the Strategic Plan for Vaccination Against COVID-19 in Argentina and the Bachelor's Degree in Nursing for the Improvement of Primary Health Care

In response to the COVID-19 epidemiological alert, the UNLaM worked in an intersectoral manner with the Ministry of Health of the Province of Buenos Aires to cooperate with the Strategic Plan for Vaccination against COVID-19 in Argentina. The team of the Bachelor's degree in Nursing carried out training, research, and other extension activities to promote excellence standards in nursing care, which care is a basic element for the improvement of the population's health, and to reduce inequalities in access to health services. The management methodology involved intersectoral and interdisciplinary interaction with different actors and agents of the university system and the health sub-sectors, including the creation of open networks for joint work following the dynamics of university and social health demands. The research methodology consisted of a combination of both quantitative and qualitative studies, for which we kept a record of observations and a questionnaire to older adults who attended the UNLaM Vaccination Centre, with subsequent telephone follow-up. The results show the habits of older adults and their confidence in immunization processes; additionally, connections and signs of connections between variables related to COVID-19 infections, immunization and geographic region were determined using traditional and Bayesian statistics. In view of the significance of its results, this research is to be implemented as systematised didactic material for the training of health sciences students, professionals, and researchers. Furthermore, we would like to highlight the joint work between teachers, students, researchers and the community, the training of professionals and pre-professionals through free university seminars, courses and workshops specialised in COVID-19, and the acquisition of research strategies that complement formal education. A future challenge is to continue promoting the empowerment of nursing professionals through the acquisition of knowledge, skills and strategies that will enable them to better position themselves in the community and improve the quality of care, which should be a central point on the political agenda.