3 minute read
GGC Joins Pandemic Fight
While much attention has focused on how Georgia Gwinnett kept its students on track with their studies during the pandemic while maintaining safety protocols, members of the
GGC Joins campus community joined in the fight against COVID-19. Pandemic Fight
Vaccination volunteers
During this spring and summer semesters, GGC nursing students and faculty contributed hundreds of volunteer hours to helping administer thousands of vaccines at local COVID-19 vaccination sites. Twenty nursing students worked at the mass vaccination clinics at Gwinnett Place Mall and at Kaiser Permanente. The mall location alone was able to vaccinate 1,000 people per day.
“The students worked 12-hour shifts giving vaccines, screening patients for eligibility and observing patients after vaccination,” said Jeffrey Fouche-Camargo, assistant professor of nursing. “They’ve not only gotten tons of experience with vaccinations, but have gained invaluable experience with how mass response to a public health crisis is conducted.” The students’ vaccination volunteer experiences counted towards their required clinical hours for the nursing program. Four nursing faculty members volunteered with the Gwinnett, Newton, and Rockdale Health Department through Medical Reserve Corps. “Having been an active ICU nurse for 25 years, watching my colleagues on TV and hearing the stress they were enduring made me want to do something,” said Dr. Diane White, dean of the School of Health Sciences. “I decided that when the vaccines were available, I would get vaccinated and assist in helping others get immunized, which in turn helps my colleagues who treat COVID-19 patients.” “It has been tremendously rewarding to help get our community vaccinated,” Fouche-Camargo said. “I think this is a great example of how GGC has helped this community during the pandemic.”
– Dr. Jeffrey Fouche-Camargo
Professional Education
During the pandemic, Fouche-Camargo was invited to make an online, statewide presentation for the Louisiana chapter of the Association of Women’s Health, Obstetric and Neonatal Nurses. More than 200 nurses and pharmacists logged in for his presentation, which qualified for professional continuing education credits.
Mobile vaccination clinic
GGC partnered with the Gwinnett, Newton and Rockdale County Health Departments (GNR) to provide a mobile vaccination site on campus for two months this summer. “It was important for campus health and safety to ensure that the GGC community had convenient access to vaccines, particularly students balancing life obligations such as classes, family and work,” said Tomas Jimenez, senior associate vice president for Student Affairs and dean of students. The clinic was open to students, faculty, staff and the general public on both a walk-in and appointment basis. GNR was invited to return to campus for student resident move-in and the first week of classes.
Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) needs
In March of 2020, a GGC faculty member suggestion led Estephanie Gonzalez, an information technology (IT) laboratory supervisor, to enlist the help of IT major Jesse Merida, ’20, in creating face shields using GGC’s 3D printers. Like all personal protective equipment (PPE), face shields were in short supply in the first several months of the pandemic. They were needed to help protect medical workers’ eyes from potentially infectious, airborne particles and droplets. Gonzalez had ordered a supply of suitable plastic before the pandemic began, and because the 3D-printing community had responded to the urgent need for PPE, she was able to locate suitable face shield plans on the web. Merida estimated that he could make parts for 48 face shields per month on the college’s three 3D printers, located in its digital media laboratory. The numbers may have been small, but the need for PPE was great and potentially life-saving. “It’s just nice to be able to help, even a little bit,” Merida said. GGC collaborated with its health care partners in distributing the face shields.
