SUNY Broome Environmental, Health & Safety Coordinator Hans VanHouten has been coordinating efforts on behalf of the campus community to donate unused protective equipment to local healthcare organizations in need. He also shares other ways SUNY Broome has been doing their part to help our community during the COVID-19 pandemic.
On March 30th SUNY Broome donated to the county
8,000 gloves
1,050 cup style masks
750 surgical masks
100 N95 masks
150 gowns of all types
On April 8th
3,200 pairs of gloves
80 pairs of safety glasses
120 pairs of surgical gloves
15 isolation gowns
25 lab gowns
Total donation:
11,320 gloves
1,900 masks
190 gowns
80 safety glasses
SUNY Broome Faculty and Staff Step Up to Help During the COVID-19 Pandemic
- Professor, Ken Marble, has been printing face shields utilizing a 3D printer. He has donated these masks to Geisinger Medical Center in Wilkes-Barre, he’s also donating to Bellevue Hospital in NYC. Professor Marble has also made himself available to any hospital/agency/whatever if they need specialty parts engineered and printed utilizing CAD software and 3D printing.
- SUNY Broome has coordinated with BOCES to help facilitate their use of 3D printers, including plans/instructions/design on how to print face shields via 3D printers, which were given to us through coordinated efforts with other SUNY institutions and originating from the campus of SUNY New Paltz.
- SUNY Broome has donated three infrared thermometers to UHS
- SUNY Broome has been coordinating with hundreds of colleges and universities throughout the nation in listservs, forums, groups, and teams to share information, experiences, documents, and plans to help mitigate the issues caused by the pandemic.
“We are all in this together, and everybody now wears multiple hats,” says VanHouten, “we’ve had to adapt and step up to keep up with the fluid situation. People everywhere are taking on additional responsibility to help with the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Amy Allen Nursing – Clinical Adjunct Faculty (04/23/20)
“Working at Lourdes Hospital, this is a trying time as a nurse battling between my duty to care for patients and my want to protect my family. It has been a constantly changing environment with daily sometimes hourly policy changes. My family worries about me trying to balance work with my family’s safety and mental health. Learning new skills including ventilator basics in case of a surge. I have also packed a bag to have if I become mandated to stay. All of this while also educating my family and friends regarding proper hand washing and steps to possibly prevent infection. Once a nurse, always a nurse.”
Sandra Wright Professor Business Information Technology, Holly Jones, Chair of HIT and Stephanie Albitz, HIT faculty (4/21/20)
“I’d love to share what we are doing for HIT 245 which is the Professional Practical Experience in Health Information Management. Due to COVID-19, Health Information Technology seniors are not able to go into community agencies for their clinicals this spring. Holly Jones, Chair of HIT and Stephanie Albitz, HIT faculty, have put together 3 components of a PPE in order to meet this requirement for their students’ graduation. The first component will be a 3 week practicum working with me as the Project Manager on the Sunshine Electronic Health Records Simulation. SEHRS was created last year with a Sunshine Fund Grant as a collaboration between BIT, Nursing and HIT. Holly, Stephanie and I have coordinated our efforts to be able to open this project. It is called HIT Clinical: Sunshine EHR Simulation. ” – Professor Sandra Wright
“As we’re progressing through the project I think one really cool element for me has been the way we are able to give these records new life. The picture below is just one of the many shelving units we have in the HIT department full of records that were donated to us for learning resources. Some are even older than I am! Since paper charts are no longer the industry standard, they’ve sort of fallen out of use. Through this project, students are learning about what it’s like to work with these paper charts and some of the challenges that go with that (doctor’s handwriting!), but are also creating a body of work that will bring new life and relevance to these learning materials for future classes!” – Stephanie Albiz, HIT Faculty
Tina Seedborg, MS, RN (Assistant Professor, Nursing) (04/21/20)
I am working at Hilltop Retirement Community James G. Johson nursing facility usually every other weekend evening shift.
We have taken extra precautions by screening all employees and have restricted visitors. As a supervisor, I take the time to go into resident rooms to spend time with them since they are not receiving visitors-this is the best part of my job. The residents are also isolated from each other except if they have a roommate. The Facility has done a great job redistributing job duties of other departments to meet the needs of the residents as well as the shortage of nursing staff.
Danielle Mahoney-Brown (full-time Nursing faculty) (04/16/20)
“I am working at Lourdes in ambulatory surgery for emergent cases. I have been refreshing my skills in ICU. It has been stressful at the hospital, but I feel i can ease the burden with my knowledge and years of critical care experience. As Captain Sullenberger said,” I have been making small regular deposits into my bank of experience, education and training.” During this pandemic , I pray that my balance is sufficient so I can make a very large withdrawal. Since the no-visitor policy , we have been spending more time providing support to our patients. Last week , I was able to ease the fears of my patient’s daughter by texting pictures of her mother to her using her mother’s phone. The best part of all of this is the love and support of my healthcare colleagues.”
Jennifer Hopkins MHA MSN AGPCNP-BC, Clinical Coordinator and Clinical Professor Adjunct (04/14/20)
“Nursing is a passion and a profession. I enjoy the reward of serving the elderly in our community as a nurse practitioner keeping our seniors safe and protected from COVID-19. It is through times like these we are offered the opportunity to be the best we can be. I am grateful for the obstacles as they continually challenge us to learn, transform, and overcome the impossible.”
Dr. Graciela Solano, Assistant Professor, Nursing (04/09/20)
Dr. Graciela Solano is offering her healing practices of yoga and meditation online on the weekends to support the mental health and wellness of the Binghamton community. She is continuing to promote the wellness of the cancer patients and cancer survivors she works with by taking her Yoga4Cancer classes online. She is also sharing her meditation practices with nursing students in the online learning environment by sharing online meditation resources to support their wellness.
During the online course teaching process, she is donating her time virtually to clinical nursing faculty on navigating online teaching technology to assist them with teaching in the virtual clinical classroom.
Roseanne West, Associate Professor of Nursing (4/7/20)
Associate professor of Nursing and Program Coordinator for the Nursing Department, Roseanne West, is preparing SUNY Broome students for entry into the modern healthcare workforce. Professor West is currently teaching senior-level evening- weekend AAS in Nursing program and freshman-level courses in the day time option.
Professor West is also a volunteer EMT with Silver Lake Volunteer Fire and Rescue Squad and works weekend night shifts for the Emergency Department at Lourdes Hospital. “Emergency nursing and emergency medical technicians are needed more than ever to continue care for the community.” she explains. “It is a challenging and rewarding time.”
To students, she offers these words of encouragement. “Students in our Health Science programs are embarking on an incredible journey in a career field that allows for a lifetime of learning,” said West. “Working in this field gives you an incredible sense of commitment with an endless amount of professional development rewards.”
