When the novel coronavirus was declared a global pandemic last year, Niagara College students, faculty and alumni stepped up to the frontlines to help while the world hunkered down to flatten the curve.
From using lab equipment dedicated to other purposes to make masks to donning their own personal protective equipment (PPE) in local long-term care homes, they didn’t shy away from the challenges and uncertainty before them.
Ask and those alumni, organizations on receiving end of assistance, and the faculty offering support by way of video calls and classes will credit NC for helping themand others navigate the unknowns of COVID-19 with care, compassion and unparalleled professionalism.
Here are few of their stories.
Taking the long view in long-term care
It was a few weeks before the official start of clinical placements for students in the Personal Support Worker program when the province declared its first state of emergency in March 2020.
Fola Akano, director of care at Radiant Care’s Tabor Manor in St. Catharines, knew she and residents of the long-term care home would need all the help they could get to push through a pandemic that pushed many into a state of fear.
No one knew much yet about COVID-19, only that it could be deadly. Staff who may have divided their time between Radiant Care’s other complex in Niagara-on-the-Lake were forced to only work at one location to curb the spread of the virus. If anyone developed symptoms, they had to self-isolate.
All in, it set the stage for staffing shortages.
Meanwhile, other long-term care homes had closed their doors to clinical placements to reduce possible exposure of their residents to infection.
Akano and the staff at Tabor Manor knew they had a good and reliable group of up-and-coming PSWs in their midst, however. The educator in Akano compelled her to work with the College to co-ordinate hiring them as staff while they completed their required clinical placements — the final piece in their year-long training — at the same time.
“In March, it was uncharted territory for everybody. We lost some staff because they were scared. Some needed to do child care,” Akano recalled. “We needed PSW staff.”
Two students were hired in supportive housing, two more in long-term care. Nearly a year later, they’re pandemic veterans and permanent staff at Tabor Manor.
The new hires helped residents to connect with their families virtually when lockdown cut them off from their closest companions in real life. They bathed and groomed residents. They bridged gaps when pandemic protocols meant less time for other staff to spend with residents in the name of donning and doffing PPE, filling out forms and other new and necessary tasks.
Though what lay ahead would be difficult for everyone, the transition from student to staff would be relatively easy. Tabor Manor had been the setting for NC students to do lab work and other hands-on learning thanks to a living classroom built specifically for them to develop the critical skills they’d need as PSWs.
Students were a few weeks from graduating and had already formed connections with Tabor Manor staff and residents thanks to the living classroom partnership.
Many of those staff had already sung students’ praises to Akano before the advent of the career-defining pandemic. They had learned as much from them as they were teaching students. And in a once-in-a-lifetime health crisis, everyone was learning from each other.
“They weren’t new PSWs. Everyone was learning,” Akano said. “What encouraged us to reach out to the College at the time (about hiring) was because they were such good students. This was better than hiring someone off the street because we knew their work ethic. They were a good bunch.”
From the classroom into the community
Diane Mekli’s second-year pharmacy tech students were just two months and one certification exam away from embarking on their careers with the COVID-19 pandemic escalated to a state of emergency last March.
Many had just started their placements, some in other cities, in hospitals or community pharmacies when their practical training came to an abrupt halt in the name of public safety.
But what to do? No one could graduate without working first in a pharmacy setting.
“We had a big dilemma on our hands for what we were going to do for their placements,” said Mekli, co-ordinator of the Pharmacy Technician and Community Pharmacy Assistant programs. “Everyone was having a hard time.”
As the lockdown went on, however, opportunity started to present itself. Family doctors were doing virtual visits with patients during limited hours. Refilling prescriptions posed a challenge in those conditions and the decision to do so was often left to the professional judgment of pharmacists.
In a time of hoarding essentials, people were also stocking up on prescription medications out of fears of shortages.
Pharmacies needed help keeping up. And that meant an opportunity for Mekli’s students. Each one found a place to work, unpaid, “to their own potential health detriment at a super busy time.”
It was worth the risk to many.
“Students went and worked on the frontlines for no pay under stressful situations and many ended up getting employed after that,” Mekli said. “More than half the students found employment after that. They really hit the ground running and offered support at a critical time.”
The courage of her class venturing into the unknown made Mekli marvel.
“That cohort of students was amazing,” she said. “Our students knew we’re all in it together. We were communicating with them all the time. None of them backed down or refused a placement. Luckily we didn’t hear back that anyone got sick. Some were afraid but they really loved being on the frontlines. They felt the importance that yes, they are a health care professional.”
Still, there was that second placement to do. In normal times, students have those completed by May. In pandemic times, some were only finishing that mandatory component in September.
Then there were those certifying exams, which happen only twice a year, for which they had to prepare.
Mekli moved the exam prep online, working with her 29 students in 90-minute time slots every day and at all hours to accommodate their schedules. They would role-play different patient scenarios, go through mock stations like what’s presented in an exam, and practise multiple choice questions.
The one benefit of doing it all online was that Mekli could record the sessions and provide feedback and points of reference to help them improve and prepare. That’s something she’ll continue doing, even when face-to-face interaction becomes the norm again.
Now with a new cohort in her midst, Mekli is keeping her fingers crossed they won’t have a similar experience in a pandemic with no immediate end in sight.
Still, whatever happens, their role in keeping people healthy can’t be understated, she noted. Pharmacy techs can now do a two-day certificate program to administer COVID-19 vaccines.
“It’s an exciting time for the profession as a whole because there was a time only pharmacists could give vaccinations,” Mekli said. “But that’s expanded to pharmacy techs as well because they need the manpower.”
Donning, doffing and taking one for the team
Connor Kenny remembers well the lessons he got in putting on and removing personal protective equipment (PPE) when he was a student at Niagara College.
He was studying in the Occupational Therapy Assistant and Physiotherapist Assistant program and in addition to learning how to help people get moving after surgery, he got schooled in how to wear equipment that would keep him and his patients safe.
But like anyone else training for a career in health care, he had no idea just how important those lessons would become until he found himself working in an epicentre of the COVID-19 pandemic, Niagara Health’s Greater Niagara General Hospital.
“Going back to Niagara College, I felt like I had a good foundation around donning and doffing PPE. That is something they stressed doing properly, especially during something like COVID, which can spread easily,” Kenny said.
“It’s so vitally important to protect each other so we can continue to work at proper numbers to meet needs. Every department at the hospital has felt the effects of COVID to some extent.”
That wasn’t the only lesson that would come in handy during a global pandemic nearly eight years after Kenny graduated from NC.
His work as a rehab assistant with Niagara Health, now at the St. Catharines hospital, remained largely unchanged. Kenny’s day-to-day duties still revolved around carrying out treatment programs after patients have been assessed by an occupational therapist or physiotherapist.
But if there was ever an ‘Other duties as assigned’ line in his job description, COVID-19 took full advantage.
As colleagues fell ill, it was up Kenny and others on his team to step in and help where needed, and vice versa. That might mean helping a nurse repostion a patient in bed or nurses helping Kenny to get his patients up and moving. Other days, he’d help stock linen cars, or come in on days off to fill in where needed.
Collaboration was mandatory to maintain the patient-centred care that was the focus of everyone’s job at the hospital.
That was something else he learned as a student, particularly during a second-year course that focused on the inter-professional team working together. Students from different disciplines in the School of Allied Health came together to learn how to function as a team.
“That taught me the importance of teamwork, which has really come into play in the last year,” Kenny said. “We’ve really put differences aside and helped each other in ways you wouldn’t normally see in a normal year. People are working short all over the hospital so it’s trying to help as much as you can. We’re trying to be there for the patients and have to do whatever it takes.”
As much as his training prepared him for a scenario no one could have imagined, working through the COVID-19 crisis hasn’t been easy, he noted. Still, he refuses to be scared of the unknowns shrouding the novel coronavirus.
“A firefighter would never run away because a fire is so massive. I got into health care to help people,” Kenny said. “It was definitely tough (early on). I think back to the first wave and being around everyone at the hospital, you saw a lot of heightened anxiety. For me, I had to remind myself why I was there. It’s to help patients. That’s why I’m there.”
