Page 38 - Healthcare News July-August 2020

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Karen Rousseau says AIC aims to create a safe environment for health-pro- gram students, before they begin working in a field that can never be totally safe.
Karen Rousseau, dean of the School of Health Sciences at American International College, said many of AIC’s health programs involve teaching skills that involve hands-on or face-to-face interaction. “While most courses at AIC will be remote, there are courses that involve some face-to-face classwork, in particular nursing, PT, OT, and a little bit in
“We will be back
on campus in September; we changed the configuration of
all our classrooms and made sure
we’ve provided
all the sanitization equipment we need, so we can teach in an environment that’s as safe as possible.”
exercise science,” she noted. To prepare for that, “we’ve
put into place some guidelines for maintaining student safety and reducing exposure,” Rous- seau explained. “Students will wear masks whenever they’re in the building, with addition- al PPE to enter the classroom. And we’re running smaller sec- tions of those classes.”
Faculty will try to make the most efficient use of face-to- face class time as well, she added. “There may be things students can prepare for re- motely, so when they come in, they’re focused on activities that involve face-to-face inter- actions for a shorter time.”
In addition, professors have also identified lessons and skills that require need face- to-face interaction for student progress, and moved those ear-
lier in September to anticipate the potential for another state shutdown if the pandemic spikes in the fall, as well as managing students’ field work and clinical experiences to ensure they get the training they need.
In short, COVID-19 is still a moving target in many ways, and health- care educators must balance safety with the fact that some skills simply can’t be learned — not completely, anyway — through a screen.
Safe and Sound
Rousseau, like Hixon, remembers the scramble to move everything online in the spring.
“It was such a fast change. But the faculty rose to the occasion and found really creative ways to simulate things in the classroom, and were able to simulate experiences very efficiently and effectively,” she told HCN, adding that a few students who would have graduated are re-
Please see Fall, page 40
38 WWW.HEALTHCARENEWS.COM JULY/AUGUST 2020