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College Students Called On To Help With Pandemic

Friday, 27 March 2020 at 07:15

Courtesy: Fanshawe College

Four weeks shy of completing their program, third year Fanshawe College students are given credentials to start working on the frontlines during the COVID -19 pandemic.

LONDON –  Students of Fanshawe’s Respiratory Therapy program will be putting their skills to use ahead of graduating to help during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The College of Respiratory Therapists of Ontario will allow the College’s 43 third-year students to begin work immediately as there is a shortage of frontline respiratory therapists at many hospitals.  In Ontario, the profession is a small group, with about 3,000 therapists total in the province. 

COVID-19 is a respiratory disease and patients need the expertise of a respiratory therapist to assist with their breathing through oxygen and/or intubation and ventilation, putting respiratory therapists in high demand and at the centre of the worst of this disease.

Professor Julie Brown is the coordinator of the Respiratory Therapy program. 

"I have been in this profession for more than twenty years and have never seen this happen, not even during SARS," 

But are the students ready? Brown gives her full endorsement.

 “I have all of the confidence in the world in our students. They are only four weeks from completing an extremely difficult three-year program and all have done 36 of 40 weeks in clinical hospital and community placements. They have all of the skills they need to be great help and many are jumping in today!"

Over the next month, the students will finish their courses online while also working to help during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

 

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