Hartnell donates to local hospitals
College loans ventilators and gives masks, gowns and gloves, as well as help from nursing students.
SALINAS >> As Salinas Valley Memorial Hospital and other local hospitals help the community fight the COVID-19 pandemic, Hartnell College donated medical supplies, equipment and help from nursing students to help in the battle.
Hartnell is loaning 13 respirators to Salinas Valley Memorial Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula and Natividad hospital. All of the ventilators are in good working order, and one was brand new, still in the box. It’s also donating masks, gowns and gloves, along with help from nursing students.
Dr. Debra Kaczmar, dean of academic affairs, nursing and allied health at Hartnell, said the college has a respiratory care program.
“So we always have a lot of equipment like that so they can get real-life experiences in the lab,” she said.
Karina Rusk, a spokesperson for Salinas Valley Memorial Healthcare System, said the relationship between Salinas Valley Memorial and Hartnell goes back to the beginning of the college’s nursing program. Christie McGuire, the chief nursing officer at Salinas Valley Memorial, said she meets with Kaczmar a couple of times a year to discuss the partnership.
They spoke recently about continuing the program with nursing students at the hospital.
“Our organization feels that nursing is a very integral and important part of the medical profession and we think we need to continue to produce skilled, licensed nurses to support our population,” McGuire said.
A total of 88 registered nursing students report to the hospital on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. The pressing demand for registered nursing help in nonCOVID roles at Salinas Valley Memorial will fulfill remaining clinical requirements for 2020 graduates and enable other students to continue their hands-on learning, despite COVID-19’s impact on the classroom simulation.
“We’re able to keep our student nurses so they can finish on time and they can finish all of their coursework at the bedside,” Kaczmar said.
McGuire said Salinas Valley Memorial made a decision to keep the student nurses away from COVID-19 patients to reduce the potential for exposure though they still provide relief for the staff at the hospital.
“The student nurses help support some of the more basic care and take some of the workload off the higher-level skills,” she said.
There also is the prospect for students in the college’s respiratory care, nursing and emergency medical technician programs to be recruited as part of California’s Health Corps group being organized to supplement shorthanded health care staffs across the state. That effort was announced by Gov. Gavin Newsom on March 30.
Many of the nursing and respiratory students expressed a determination to contribute during the pandemic. Local skilled-nursing facilities have restricted opportunities for vocational nursing students to accumulate patient-care hours, Kaczmar said. Respiratory care students also have been displaced from clinical postings, but the program’s upcoming graduates already have sufficient experience to begin working and several have jobs waiting at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center in San Jose.
“We’re here to help and we’ve got students who are capable, students who are ready to graduate and we can fulfill many needs that the care centers, acute care centers and longterm care centers have,” Kaczmar said. “We are a resource to them and we’ll entertain any way possible that we can help out remotely, in person or just to provide some respite. Our students are ready and they’re willing.”