Kirsten Peterson, a 1978 Allegheny College graduate and a member of the Gateway Pre-Professional Studies staff, received the Buck Hill ’68 Award from the Northeast Association of Advisors for the Health Professions (NEAAHP) during its June 2020 annual meeting, which was held online.
Kirsten Peterson, Allegheny’s director of Pre-Professional Advising.
Peterson was honored for her outstanding service to NEAAHP and the National Association of Advisors for the Health Professions (NAAHP), demonstrating several key qualities that have earned the respect of her peers. The award recognizes a NEAAHP member of at least 10 years who has volunteered significant effort on behalf of NEAAHP. Peterson served on the NEAAHP Executive Committee from 2006 to 2019 as a member at large, one term as president, and two terms as secretary.
NEAAHP is one of four regional subsets of NAAHP, the national organization for health professions advisors. Its main purpose is to help college and university advisors do their jobs and to support those advisors in times of change. Help comes in several forms, including workshops, conferences, a website and mentorship.
“NEAAHP has certainly helped me as an advisor,” said Peterson. “It is a recognition of the work I have done for the organization as a board member, president, secretary, committee member, worker bee at meetings and panel moderator. Any recognition of my work is good for the College. Another aspect is the modeling of behavior I hope our students will follow. By engaging in service I am modeling the behavior I hope that students will adopt.”
Peterson said she is a member of the regional and national organizations “because it is the best way to know what is going on in the medical admissions world. It was incredibly helpful as I started this job, it helps me stay current with pre-health issues, and it now allows me to serve as a mentor to other advisors.”
Peterson’s primary job at Allegheny is advising pre-health students. “That is unusual for a college of our size, but it means that I can provide workshops and meet with students as often as they need. It means I can stay up to date in the field, so I can help them prepare, with such programs as the MCAT boot camp,” Peterson said. “It means that I have the time to arrange shadowing opportunities both locally and within our alumni network. I arrange the annual Lehman Medical Ethics Lecture and assist with the health-coaching program. When it comes to writing the school’s letter of recommendation for graduate school, I know them well. Allegheny is generous in these respects, giving me the time to manage a robust program.”
Allegheny College student Maya Hackman has been awarded a scholarship through the Department of Veterans Affairs Health Professional Scholarship Program (HPSP), which provides financial assistance to individuals pursuing a program of study leading to a Master of Science in physician assistant studies.
Hackman, a junior biology major and psychology minor, will attend Chatham University for physician assistant studies in the fall as part of a 3+2 cooperative program with Allegheny. The Health Professional Scholarship Program awards provide for the payment of a monthly stipend, tuition, required fees and other reasonable educational expenses. This program helps to alleviate the health care workforce shortages in the VA by obligating scholarship recipients to complete two years of service at a VA health care facility after graduation and licensure/certification.
Hackman was a member of the varsity women’s soccer team and a NaviGator peer mentor at Allegheny.
As a front-line physician working in a hospital’s emergency room in Tennessee, Colleen Tran is focused on preserving the health and welfare of her patients, some of them very sick and facing a fight for their lives. The same is true for Lauren Moore, an emergency medicine resident in a Columbus, Ohio, hospital.
Jessica Schindelar is concerned with protecting and ensuring the safety of health-care workers like Moore and Tran. Schindelar is a member of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) COVID-19 Health Systems and Worker Safety Task Force.
All three health-care professionals are Allegheny College graduates. Their missions are similar during the current global health pandemic — to defeat the scourge of the novel coronavirus.
“I can truly say that I, probably like most of us, never expected to be in the throws of a pandemic let alone have my hands on the people infected with it every day,” said Moore. “It has absolutely brought a new admiration and appreciation for my colleagues and to all of the nurses, sanitation workers, respiratory therapists, medical techs, grocery store employees, and veterinarians, who, despite the risk, still willingly expose themselves to a deadly virus every day.”
These three dedicated health-care professionals took time from their hectic schedules recently to discuss their roles during the COVID-19 crisis.
Colleen Zink Tran ’07, Emergency Room Physician
Tran is an emergency room physician at TriStar StoneCrest Medical Center in Smyrna, Tennessee, a suburb of Nashville. She also serves as the assistant medical director for the emergency department. Every day since early March, her main duties have been the same.
“We are monitoring the positive cases and deaths daily,” Tran said. “We are testing symptomatic and asymptomatic patients in an effort to identify positive cases and quarantine to prevent spread. In preparation for a possible surge of patients, our hospital had set up tents outside where we would be able to rapidly evaluate patients that have symptoms concerning for COVID-19.”
Allegheny graduate Dr. Colleen Tran works in an emergency room in suburban Nashville, Tennessee.
The past two months have been a new learning experience for Tran, who graduated from Allegheny with a major in biochemistry and a minor in Spanish in 2007. “Life at work is very different from our usual. Normally, I would arrive at work in personal scrubs, log onto the computer, and start seeing patients. With this virus being so contagious, I now have many more steps to complete before starting my shift,” said Tran.
First, she gets her temperature checked upon entering the facility. If someone has a fever, they are sent home immediately and put on quarantine, she said. Tran then changes into hospital scrubs that are left at the hospital after her previous shift so it reduces the chance that she will bring the virus home on her clothing.
She picks up her masks — which include a simple mask for droplet protection and an N95 mask that is used during procedures such as intubation (putting a breathing tube down a patient’s throat) — and a face shield for the day. She scrubs her hands and arms up to her elbows with soap and water for 20 seconds to ensure that is not bringing in any of the virus. Lastly, she uses an antiviral/antibacterial wipe to clean off her computer, desk, chair, and anything else she may touch during her shift. Finally, she can log onto her computer and start seeing patients. At the end of her shift, the process is reversed, she said.
“In regards to the pathology I am seeing, there is definitely an increase in acuity or how sick patients are,” Tran said. “We are seeing many severely ill patients with difficulty breathing or with significantly low oxygen levels. These patients seem to get worse very fast and often end up on a ventilator. We have to take many precautions to not catch the virus while seeing these patients and especially while doing procedures on them, as this is when the virus can become airborne. For every patient who has symptoms of COVID-19, we have to wear a mask, goggles, a face shield, hair cover, gown, and gloves. This is very time consuming, so every patient I am seeing takes much more time than usual.”
Colleen Tran with her family staying at home.
Tran said her Allegheny education plays an integral role in her duties as an emergency room physician. “My time at Allegheny taught me critical thinking, time management, and how to be a leader. As an emergency physician, I have to be able to react quickly and often have to make hard decisions with minimal information. In the most stressful cases I have to be a leader for the staff and communicate my thought process,” she said.
Tran is married to a physician and has two children at home. Lately, when she gets home, she has been self isolating. “I try very hard not to touch my face and wash my hands often, even when at home,” Tran said. “I am taking daily zinc and vitamin C supplements as well. I am also focusing on my mental health and happiness in order to decrease stress. I try to separate my work life from my home life in order to avoid burnout, which is a common problem for emergency physicians.”
According to Tran, who earned her medical degree from Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine, the toughest aspect of the COVID-19 outbreak has been to manage the anxiety, fear, and misunderstanding of the disease.
“It is frustrating to hear others minimize the virus, when I am risking my life by potentially exposing myself,” she said. “As the assistant medical director, it was initially very hard to calm my staff and the other physicians. Everyone was panicked that we may run out of masks or gowns. When this all started, there was a very steep learning curve as to how to protect yourself and we were getting conflicting advice daily. That was incredibly frustrating because we still wanted and needed to take care of our patients, but we wanted to protect ourselves as well.”
Jessica Schindelar ’02, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, COVID-19 Health Systems and Worker Safety Task Force Communication Lead
Schindelar, the associate director for communication in the CDC’s Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion, is currently serving as the communication lead for the Health Systems and Worker Safety Task Force within the CDC’s COVID-19 response. She has been in this role since late March 2020 but has been working on the response since the end of January. She leads a team of 15 communicators from across the agency to translate the work of the task force through various communications channels to disseminate accurate, consistent, and clear COVID-19 information to key audiences and stakeholders, such as the nation’s health care workers.
“Allegheny also armed me with the critical thinking and problem-solving skills I need to be successful in this kind of role – skills I am using every day when decisions have to be made in a split-second, sometimes with very limited information,” says Jessica Schindelar, an Allegheny graduate who works at the CDC in Atlanta.
Some of the important work of the task force is developing evidence-based guidance, recommendations, resources, and tools to protect healthcare workers and minimize the impacts of COVID-19 on the U.S. healthcare system. Some of the key issues she is working on are healthcare worker safety and infection control practices in healthcare settings, personal protective equipment, healthcare facility preparedness, and system-wide impacts.
“Our task force also provides technical assistance — both by deploying teams of experts to provide on-site assistance and providing remote assistance to healthcare facilities throughout the country, including nursing homes and long-term care facilities, which we are finding to be particularly vulnerable to COVID-19 outbreaks,” said Schindelar, who is a 2002 Allegheny graduate who majored in neuroscience and minored in art history.
Schindelar’s team is developing communication strategies and crafting important messages, creating fact sheets and toolkits, fielding interview requests from media, scripting and editing videos, and managing 60-plus web pages with critical and continually changing information for healthcare providers and facilities. The group is also writing social media, responding to questions from the public and professional audiences, hosting webinars and regular calls with clinical audiences and healthcare sector partners, and ensuring that the guidance and resources being developed by the task force are getting into the hands of the people that need them.
“I always felt like my neuroscience and art history combination was a bit of an odd one, but working as a public health communicator on healthcare safety issues has been a really lovely marriage of my interests in science and the arts,” said Schindelar. “I am forever grateful for my Allegheny education because it made me a better writer — this work requires that I’m clear and direct in my communications. I’m able to translate the scientific, technical information and guidance that is being developed by our task force into actionable messages and communication products that are easy to understand and use.
“Allegheny also armed me with the critical thinking and problem-solving skills I need to be successful in this kind of role — skills I am using every day when decisions have to be made in a split-second, sometimes with very limited information. Outside of my education, my Allegheny experience as a whole made me a stronger, more confident leader,” she said.
Schindelar said she has been following her own CDC guidance to protect herself: Staying home as much as possible, frequent handwashing, practicing social distancing, and wearing a face covering to protect others when she goes out to run essential errands — which is mostly just grocery store runs, she said. Generally, she tries to get enough sleep, eat healthy, and take walks in her neighborhood to get in exercise to counterbalance the hours she works.
“There are two things I am finding particularly tough during this crisis,” said Schindelar. “First, is hearing from friends, former classmates, and other healthcare workers who are on the front lines about the challenges they are experiencing. It’s difficult to hear the realities about what is happening on the ground, and I am so grateful for everything they are doing. I am trying to do my part to help them — as are the more than 4,000 CDC staff working around the clock on this response to protect the public’s health. Seeing the dedication and commitment of the 300-plus people within my own task force who I’m working with every day to protect healthcare workers and facilities makes me really proud to be part of this historic response, even on the hardest days.”
The second challenge is that the CDC staff is mostly running this response from their homes, she said. “There is a skeleton crew at CDC right now. Before we moved to remote work in March, our emergency response operations happened out of two buildings on CDC’s campus — we were all working out of our task force ‘war’ rooms. That is all happening virtually now, and while I feel very fortunate that I can do this work from the safety of my own home, many of my colleagues are now juggling this response with childcare and school as well. It’s an added layer of difficulty we’ve never encountered in any response I’ve been involved with in my 12 years at the agency. But in the end, it’s rewarding work despite the long hours and I go to bed every night really proud of the work we have done and are doing.”
Lauren Moore ’14, Emergency Medicine Resident
Moore is a postgraduate year two emergency medicine resident at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center. She is nearing the end of her second of three years of post-medical school training. “We see everyone — the deathly sick, the not so sick, and all those in between, regardless of whether or not they have signs or symptoms of COVID-19,” Moore said.
“Sometimes, when I’m driving home after a 12-hour shift, the weight of the situation hits me and I have to remind myself to take a deep breath and forge ahead,” says Lauren Moore, who works in an emergency room in Columbus.
Successfully managing the crisis is all about delegating resources, she said. “This means that we have to determine what patients need further management and monitoring in the hospital versus who can safely go home. Aside from life-saving care, we provide public information, resources, and a hand to hold during this uncertain time. I’m honored and privileged to be able to do this as my job,” Moore said.
“From a hospital standpoint, policies change based on new data at a rate of what seems like two to four times a day. We have to keep up with ever-changing COVID-19 testing kits, sanitation practices, who to test and how to keep safe,” said Moore, who is a 2014 Allegheny graduate and a 2018 graduate of the Penn State College of Medicine.
Additionally, she said, the Wexner Medical Center emergency room is seeing a “backlash from the pandemic.” Because so many people are cooped up at home, there has been an increase in the number of child abuse victims, domestic violence assaults and suicides, Moore said.
Also, hearing about colleagues and fellow first-line providers getting sick is disconcerting, Moore said. “Sometimes, when I’m driving home after a 12-hour shift, the weight of the situation hits me and I have to remind myself to take a deep breath and forge ahead,” Moore said. “It’s overwhelming. It’s like walking a tight rope on the sharp edge of a knife. On one side, we want to do right for and be there with our patients despite limited personal protection equipment and increased risk to ourselves. But on the other, we want to protect our families and friends. Either way we fall, in a lot of ways, we get cut.”
Lauren Moore has sent her dog away during the coronavirus outbreak to help protect the dog walkers she relies on.
Earning a bachelor’s degree in neuroscience at Allegheny while taking all the necessary pre-med classes was tough, Moore said, but worth it. “Long hours of studying in Steffee to get into medical school prepared me for the academic workload of staying up to date with the ever-changing guidelines and research regarding best COVID-19 treatment practices. I was also very involved in student government, my sorority Kappa Kappa Gamma, and working at the childcare center, in Alumni Affairs at the Tippie Center, at the Office of Student Involvement, and as a health coach. Having so many commitments in addition to my studies prepared me for extreme multitasking, which is imperative to success in a busy emergency room and intensive care unit.”
While personal protective equipment has been limited during the pandemic, hospital management has done everything it can to make sure physicians and other workers are as protected as possible, Moore said.
“I don’t have a safe place to store my gear at the hospital, so I leave it in my car and have been avoiding using my car unless it is to get to work,” she said. “More importantly, I’m protecting my family and friends by staying away from them. I even sent my dog away for several months to protect the dog walkers who I rely on to help me with her. It may sound silly, but that to me has probably been one of the hardest things to deal with during all of this — not coming home to her company after a long day.”
Lauren Moore wears her personal protective equipment at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center.
In an attempt to prevent viral spread and exposure to those whose bodies are already weak, visitation from the public is limited at Wexner Medical Center, as it is at all medical facilities now.
“Because of this, so many people are going through some of the most difficult times of their lives completely alone, and it’s tough to watch that,” Moore said. “Patients are brought in by EMS completely alone, and we put breathing tubes and IVs and catheters in them and they are so sick that they can’t even talk to their families on the phone to tell them what’s going on. When I provide phone updates to families, I find that it is equally as hard for them who want nothing more than to see and be there for their loved ones. All I can do is be there for the patients by holding their hands and reminding them that their families love them.”
EMT Sarah Foster ’20 says she recently enjoyed some “puppy therapy” with a coworker’s dog.
Amid finishing her senior year from home and completing her Senior Project, Allegheny College biology major Sarah Foster spent 40-plus hours each week serving the Butler, Pennsylvania, community as an emergency medical technician (EMT). Before she graduated in May, Foster shared her story with Allegheny, including the transformation of one of the company’s ambulances into the “Corona Express” to help protect her and her co-workers. Read about Foster’s experiences — in her own words:
“I have been working as an EMT for about 2 years. I work in Meadville during the school year, but my primary station is Butler Ambulance Service (BAS) in Butler, PA. When we were sent home for spring break, I started back at BAS full time and have been working 40-50+ hours a week since I’ve been home. It has been hard managing my time with school and work and I did not expect to be working as much as I am. As a senior, it took me a while to get over the sadness I was feeling about my undergrad career being cut short. But, I recently passed my comp (Woohooo!!!) and turned in some big assignments and feel that I am starting to get in the swing of things. Additionally, as a first responder, I am having a unique pandemic experience. Most of my friends and family are staying quarantined or working from home, but not me! I enjoy getting out of the house and socializing with coworkers (from a safe 6 feet apart of course!) But, with the seriousness of the situation, I have a big responsibility to keep those around me safe.
“Despite the anxiety I feel on a daily basis, I am proud to be a first responder.”
—Sarah Foster
I have lost track of how many confirmed cases we have at the local hospital. It scares me that I walk through the same halls these patients have been transported through, enter rooms where these patients may have coughed or sneezed, and interacted with potentially asymptomatic patients and could already be a carrier myself. I believe I can speak for all health care professionals and say this is not what we signed up for. Yes, we are all driven to help those in need, heal the sick, comfort the dying … but we did not ask to put our lives on the line. In addition, my work has told us to be cognizant of the number of masks we are using. Apparently supplies are dwindling and they are unable to order more. There are protocol changes every day, each facility we go to wants us to do something different, I am constantly taking my temperature, it is all just a lot right now. I am doing my best to stay safe, but it is stressful!! A lot of family members and friends have encouraged me to stop working, but I can’t. And constantly being reminded how at risk I am and how unsafe it is to be working is doing more harm than good. I suppose I could stop working, but could you imagine where we’d be if all health care providers just threw in the towel? Despite the anxiety I feel on a daily basis, I am proud to be a first responder.
Sarah Foster in the “Corona Express” — an ambulance that she and her co-workers outfitted with protective measures to transport COVID-19 patients.
When our company had our first confirmed patient, we transformed one of our ambulances into what I like to call the Corona Express. There is plastic sheeting throughout the whole back with limited supplies available. This truck is only being used for interfacility transports of confirmed or suspected cases. Afterwards, the back is decontaminated with NDC spray. When we do get a confirmed or suspected patient, both on a 911 call or interfacility transport, crew members are required to don appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE). This includes a gown, gloves, N-95 mask, eye protection, hair net, and boot covers. I have only had to put all of these items on a few times, but it is not a great experience. I commend health care workers, particularly those in the ER who are required to wear these all the time!!
To ease some anxiety the other day at work, my coworker and I walked some laps around our station. Our call volume has been down lately, so we had a few spare minutes to get in some exercise. A mother and her two kids drove up next to us and handed us some snacks and goodies. They thanked us for working and our selfless efforts to keep the community safe. Our station is getting cloth masks donated, meals delivered, and thank you notes sent to us on a daily basis. The field of EMS is not often recognized and I think many community members are just now realizing how essential we are. I am exceedingly proud to be doing what I am in these times. More than anything, this experience has solidified my passion for medicine and desire to some day be an advanced health care provider.”
