As winter arrives and COVID-19 surges, we are hearing our frontline caregivers say: “It doesn’t feel like we’re all in this together anymore.” They are still being asked to serve in near combat-like situations and return to this stressful environment day after day. They go knowing they risk illness and even death. After nine months of these intense demands, physical and emotional reserves are running low.
We can understand this best through their own words. Please take a few minutes to hear their stories. Please try to understand the gravity of their situation and their need for our support and compassion in the weeks and months to come. You can support health care workers by staying home, practicing social distancing, and wearing a mask. If you are one of our frontline caregivers, please know that we are listening and grateful to you.
Everyone involved in providing health care―dentistry, medicine, nursing, pharmacy, public health, veterinary medicine, and others―has been charged with continuing to provide care through the pandemic. This has also been hard. There are more stories that need to be told. It is our ability to tell, hear, and share these stories that help us to reach out, to empathize with others, and to heal from trauma. And some day, we will need a record of the experiences of this pandemic―to remember, honor, and learn from them.
This is an invitation to each of you to share your own story and to experience the stories of others.
We are collecting stories from the pandemic to share online and elsewhere (with your additional permission and input). The hope is that you can express the things that have impacted you, made you anxious, caused you pain, or even given you joy. In this way, others can learn from and empathize with your experiences.
Please consider submitting your story. If this invitation makes you think of someone else, please pass this message along to them. We want to reach out to and collect stories from health care professionals of all types from across our state.
Thank you,
Jakub Tolar, MD, PhD
Vice President for Clinical Affairs
Accommodation for Overnight Stays
In the event that essential personnel or health care workers need to stay overnight on or near campus for quarantine purposes, the University is prepared. Departments may reserve rooms at the Graduate Hotel, located at 615 Washington Ave SE, at a negotiated rate of $69 per night. If someone in your department needs to stay at the Graduate Hotel, please follow the process below.
- The Department Administrator must call the front desk at 612-379-8888 to make a reservation. In order to receive the reduced rate, the reservation cannot be made online.
- When making the reservation, please provide the following information:
- Department Administrator Name and phone number
- Name of Department
- Hotel Guest Name and phone number
- Specify whether the occupant is Health Care, Research, Public Safety, or Miscellaneous
- The reservation will be centrally billed to the University Real Estate office and then billed back to your department. Departments/Organizations planning to utilize this process should provide the following to the Real Estate office (Jessica Sawicki at [email protected]):
- Billing point person and contact
- Billing account or billing process.
Note: upon check-in, individuals will need to provide their personal credit card information for any incidentals that they might charge to their room.
University of Minnesota Establishes the National Resource Center for Refugees, Immigrants and Migrants
With more than $5 million in support from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the International Organization for Migration, the University of Minnesota has established the National Resource Center for Refugees, Immigrants, and Migrants (NRC-RIM) that focuses on COVID-19 prevention, control and mitigation. NRC-RIM is housed in the Center for Global Health and Social Responsibility with current collaborators from the Medical School, School of Nursing, School of Public Health, College of Education and Human Development, and the Upper Midwest Agricultural Safety and Health.
Community-University Health Care Center Adapts to Changing Needs During COVID-19
During the pandemic, the Community-University Health Care Center has been doing what it has historically done: adapting to fit the changing needs of its surrounding communities in the Phillips neighborhood. Read more from the Minnesota Daily.
Fall 2020 Interprofessional Geriatric Case Competition Winners Announced
The Minnesota Northstar Geriatric Workforce Enhancement Program concluded the inaugural Annual Interprofessional Geriatric Case Competition, naming the University of Minnesota team the winner. Students from medicine, nursing (BSN, DNP), occupational therapy, physical therapy, social work, pharmacy, dentistry, public health, medical family therapy, speech language hearing sciences, and communication sciences and disorders worked together to develop a care plan for an older patient with multiple chronic health challenges, including COVID-19.
Minnesota Cardiac Arrest Resuscitation Treatment Demonstrated 100% Success Rate in Cannulation
Recently published in the EClinicalMedicine Journal, a study found that the first four months of the Minnesota Mobile Resuscitation Consortium (MMRC) was 100% effective in cannulation for out-of-hospital sudden cardiac arrests. MMRC is the first community-wide ECMO-facilitated resuscitation program in the U.S. that has demonstrated 100% successful cannulation; functionally favorable survival rates; good safety; and the potential to be replicated in other states.
Write Winning NIH Grant Proposals
Join Clinical Translational Science Institute for their two-day seminar (Jan. 11-12), "Write Winning NIH Grant Proposals,” back by popular demand. National speaker and grant writing expert, John D. Robertson, Ph.D., will comprehensively address practical and conceptual aspects important to the proposal-writing process. Register by Dec. 16.
Other News
