Teachers and Students of School of Nursing at Tung Wah College Join Hands to Offer Frontline Supports for Fighting the Virus
01/03/2022
In view of severe epidemic situation, all sectors of the society have contributed in different ways to fight the virus. Tung Wah College (TWC) is committed to nurturing healthcare and various professionals. Upholding the core values of serving and working with the community for its development and well-being, teachers and students of TWC are sparing no effort to use their knowledge and expertise to play a role in fighting the virus, hoping to make contributions to the community with their professional knowledge.
Voluntary team to provide vaccination service for the elderly
Facing with the severe epidemic situation, the elderly staying at residential care homes are unable to get vaccinated at Community Vaccination Centres. A voluntary outreach team has been formed by 21 academics from the School of Nursing at TWC to provide in phases vaccination service for the elderly staying at residential care homes under social welfare organisations.
Professor Sally Chan, President of TWC, said “TWC is devoted to develop students’ professional knowledge and skills, aiming to equip them to apply what they have learnt to make contribution to the community. I am grateful for the voluntary support offered by our academics and students at the School of Nursing in fighting the epidemic. I look forward to seeing continuous support from the community to the work of healthcare workers as we all hope to get over the epidemic soonest.”
Professor Lorna Suen, Dean and Professor of the School of Nursing, also participated in this voluntary work. “The service period will last around 2-3 months and our voluntary team will participate in small groups after class, trying our best to assist the elderly to get vaccinated.”
Moreover, in response to the Food and Health Bureau’s appeal, TWC has mobilised more than 300 teachers, students and alumni from the School of Nursing to assist in Community Vaccination Centres and Testing Centres as inoculators and specimen collectors.
Training and fit testing on N95 respirator to enhance protection for healthcare workers
Being invited by the Social Welfare Department, Professor Simon Lam, Associate Dean (Research) and Professor of the School of Nursing at TWC, and his team have started to conduct fit testing on N95 respirator and training for proper use to healthcare workers who are working in community isolation facilities, aiming to identify the respirator model that is best fit for them taking into account of the respective comfortable and protection level, in order to assist community isolation facilities to make appropriate purchase decision. Healthcare workers are required to take care of infected elderly who are allowed to be discharged from hospitals, in order to alleviate the overcrowding situation in public hospitals.
To safeguard the well-being of workers and the elderly, it is essential for healthcare workers to wear proper respirators for enhancing protection and reducing the risk of infection. Besides, TWC will bear all the costs of personal protective equipment, respirators and consumables used in the testing procedures.
Many routine activities and services are inevitably deferred or cancelled under the epidemic, however, TWC keeps working hard on various research studies. Supported by the Health and Medical Research Fund of the Food and Health Bureau, the research study “Evaluation of N95 respirators on fit rate, real-time leakage, and usability among Chinese healthcare workers” conducted by both Professor Suen and Professor Lam is still underway at the Integrative Health Centre of TWC at Hunghom. The results will serve as a key indicator of the respiratory protection provided to healthcare workers during their performance of clinical procedures. Facing the current severe epidemic situation, it is of utmost importance for healthcare workers to wear proper respirators for maximum protection.
Online Chinese Medicine Consultation Service
TWC understood the disruption to people’s itinerary by the epidemic, especially for the elderly who are unable to attend medical appointments. In view of this, the Integrative Health Centre of TWC is planning to collaborate with non-profit making organisations to launch a free online Chinese medicine consultation service by providing video consultation and Chinese medicine to the eligible elderly. By using such service, the elderly will be able to receiveChinese medical treatment without taking the risk of infection from travelling by public transport. Details will be announced in due course.
