'Everybody was so happy and grateful': Saskatoon nurse shares her experience of delivering vaccines

As the COVID-19 vaccine rollout continues in Saskatchewan, some people are sharing their vaccine joy on social media.

Pictures of parents getting the vaccine and nurses excited to be giving itare showing up in people'sfeeds.

Gail Kizlyk,a nurse in Saskatoon,said she is over the moon to be able to provide the vaccine to others.

"Going and giving the vaccines to people just felt amazing," she said.

"I came [home] at the end of the day and just felt energized to be able to be contributing to giving the vaccine."

Kizlyk is usually a neonatal intensive care unitnurse, but had time to be trained in vaccine delivery. She said she joked to her patients that her usual patients babies cry a lot more when they get their needles.

People getting their vaccine"were happy to see people and talk to people. It's been hard on them having to isolate, as it's been on all of us ... everybody was so happy and grateful."

But it's not all sunshine and rainbows for everyone. In a recent CBC article, experts debated the value of vaccine selfies. Some said it was aninsensitive reminder to those in the medical communityparticularly in rural areasthat theyhadnot yet received the shot,while some saw it as normalizing the experience.

ForKizlyk, the selfies and social media posts are just part of the awareness campaign.

"[It's] similar to elections. You get out there and you get on social media," she said.

"The root behind vaccination is we need herd immunity ... The intention is not to make people feel bad at all, it's to encourage others. 'Hey, I got the vaccine, you should too.'"