COMFORT AND CARE DURING COVID-19
Humber College students are working alongside seasoned professionals to get patients through the pandemic
Scenes of COVID-19 front-line workers fill the news, social media and our minds. Many of those images feature Humber-educated nurses, who can be found everywhere from emergency rooms to specialized units across our communities. One such scene caught the eye of Tiziana Rivera, Chief Nursing Executive and Associate Vice-President of Osler Health: two students from Humber College’s Practical Nursing Diploma program working alongside medical radiation technologists and nursing staff. “I was rounding today and they were supporting and acting as safety officers on the unit. This is one of the incredibly important roles within our organization, and one which supports our patients and staff on a daily basis,” she said. “I cannot express enough how appreciative we are to welcome Humber students as part of our volunteer pandemic plan. They are invaluable.” For almost two decades, Humber has had a successful partnership with the University of New Brunswick (UNB) that has enabled the College to offer the province’s largest collaborative nursing degree program. Now the College is moving forward with plans to offer its own nursing degree. To help get more nurses into the field as quickly as possible, Humber partnered with UNB and the College of Nurses of Ontario to have recent graduates from Humber’s Bachelor of Nursing program approved to practice. “The system now has 155 new nurses ready to serve and I am just so proud,” said Jason Powell, Senior Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences & Wellness.
Rising to the challenge
Jimmy Lien, a graduate of Humber’s Practical Nursing Diploma program, is working on the medical unit at the Mississauga Hospital. He says some of the most basic skills he learned at Humber College have become some of the most important during the COVID-19 crisis. “Putting on gloves, the gown, putting on the mask and the personal protective equipment (PPE) - you do it incorrectly and you have a higher risk of contracting it [COVID-19],” he said. Lien is working towards his registered nurse certification using the bridging program. His unit is in the midst of becoming a COVID-19-only unit. The only patients he comes in contact with are those who are positive for the virus. “It’s stressful.” Jason Powell has some advice: rely on your training. “This is what we’ve learned to do. We have the knowledge, the skills, the abilities to work with people who have contagious illnesses.” Powell is also an Emergency Room nurse who has returned to the frontlines to help during the pandemic crisis. Powell, who is working at the Headwaters Health Care Centre, describes the emergency room as “very busy with very sick patients.” The unit is at maximum capacity. It is impossible to predict how COVID-19 will change health care, but it is certain to have an impact on nursing instruction at Humber. “As health-care settings change, we will adapt our education to produce career-ready graduates,” said Powell. For now, he is confident that the pre-COVID-19 curriculum has successfully prepared new nurses for an ever-changing health-care landscape.
“I cannot express enough how appreciative we are to welcome Humber students as part of our volunteer pandemic plan. They are invaluable.”