Brock Applied Health Sciences Grads Support Pandemic Response

New grads work in vaccination clinics, long-term care homes, and all around the world.

Newly conferred Brock University graduates from a range of programs in the Faculty of Applied Health Sciences (FAHS) have pulled together this past year to contribute to the COVID-19 pandemic response.

Responsibilities ranged from assisting in public health call centres, designing and working in vaccination clinics, being on the front line in hospital and clinic settings, providing support in long-term care homes, and more. Across the Niagara region, Ontario and the world, Brock FAHS students were lending a helping hand.

Each day, FAHS leadership, faculty and staff are still learning about the broad scope of involvement and volunteer hours students have invested into the health and well-being of individuals, families and communities across the lifespan.

Grads work across the health care spectrum

From fielding phone calls to administering vaccines, Brock Nursing grads Qynn Honsberger, Rebecca Balyk and Jordan Gallant spent the last term of their fourth year supporting Niagara residents through a clinical placement with Niagara Region Public Health (NRPH), Pandemic Response Division.

Initially, the trio began working on a project for the COVID-19 call centre to provide a tiered response to support nurse capacity. They used different types of call data available to them and other internal systems to create answers for some of the most common questions being fielded. They then organized and formatted it into a user-friendly and more efficient way for nurses and new staff to access internally.

On completion of this initiative, they each branched out into different areas of support, which included working virtually with COVID-19 patients to provide resources and do contact tracing; working with school outbreak teams on possible exposures and measures; and being deployed to the mass immunization clinics for inoculations.

Practicums in public health

During the past year, every Department of Health Sciences student who wanted or needed a practicum had one. Among the many great examples of student contributions, which included placements at Niagara Health, Halton Region, YMCA-YWCA of Guelph and Thames Valley Children's Centre near London, Ont., one that Westbury is most proud of was with Wadadee Cares in Windhoek, Namibia.