Adapting and Innovating During the COVID -19 Pandemic: An Update for Accepted Students

Adapting and Innovating During the COVID-19 Pandemic An Update for Accepted Students

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Congratulations!

Dear Accepted Student, Congratulations on your acceptance to MGH Institute of Health Professions! We invite you to join our tight-knit community dedicated to excellence in health care. Making a decision to attend one graduate school over another is a difficult task that requires a great deal of research and thought in any year — but this has not been an average year.

The coronavirus pandemic has greatly disrupted health care and education systems. You and other incoming students are making decisions about graduate school while also handling chaos and upheaval in your own lives. We believe that our students and faculty will emerge from this crisis better prepared to be innovative, flexible, and creative in their commitment to serving patients.

I hope this brief guide on how we are adapting and innovating during this difficult time is helpful and informative.

With Warm Regards, Lauren Putnam Director of Admission MGH Institute of Health Professions

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Join Us and Make a Difference Our affiliation with Mass General Brigham (MGB) The MGH Institute (IHP) is the only degree granting institution within the Mass General Brigham health care system, the largest and most advanced health care provider in New England. The IHP is an active participant in all COVID-19 initiatives in the MGB system. The IHP follows the MGB infectious control policies, with experts validating our plans to provide students, faculty, staff, and clients access to a healthy and safe campus environment. These policies include practicing advanced infection control and cleaning protocols; providing personal protective equipment; access to testing for students, faculty, and staff; and adhering to state and municipal guidelines and advisories. The IHP has invested over $1 million to convert classrooms, labs, and the Impact Practice Center (IPC) into skills labs where students are taught requisite skills in small groups where they socially distance and wear PPE.

Commit @ IHP All students are required to attest to and actively participate in the Commit @ IHP policy, a community-wide declaration of personal and professional responsibility to slow and flatten the COVID-19 curve. It requires a responsibility to every member of the IHP community, to our family and roommates, and to our clients. The basic approach is grounded in science and includes wearing a mask, washing your hands, and always practicing social distancing and social isolation by limiting your travel to home, campus, and clinical sites.

Upon matriculation, students begin the process of becoming socialized to the norms, behaviors, and codes of conduct of their respective clinical professions. Commit @ IHP is aligned with this professional responsibility. It is imperative for all of us to declare our commitment to remaining healthy and safe so: students can continue to progress within their academic programs; faculty are able to teach, research, and develop scholarly publications; and staff are able to safely provide the support and services needed to maintain a quality learning and work environment.

People’s lives depend on each of us doing the right thing and holding one another accountable.

View graphic, “Know Your Risk” for more details.

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ADAPTING OUR CURRICULUM To understand how MGH Institute of Health Professions has adapted to meet the challenges of COVID-19, it is important to understand the basic structure of our curricula. All of our programs of study can be broken down into three components: didactic lectures and group activities, skills development, and clinical education.

Didactic instruction In March 2020, all didactic instruction and group activities migrated to an online format, and for the foreseeable future, the IHP will continue to offer all its lectures online, leveraging both synchronous and asynchronous formats.

Skills development Skills development is done primarily in person and on-campus, although advances made in telehealth and simulations, such as Simucase and PhysioU have diversified opportunities to learn patient care fundamentals. Students participate in on-campus skill labs and simulation activities in small groups and in separate spaces allowing for social distancing.

Onsite IMPACT Practice Center All people visiting the facilities, including students, faculty, and clients, adhere to infection mitigation guidelines established by the MGB system. In addition, our IMPACT Practice Center’s hours of operation have been expanded to accommodate more interprofessional rounds and community outreach.

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Innovative Clinical Placements The availability of clinical placements within the IHP’s large clinical partner network is dependent on several factors, such as the trajectory of the virus, availability of supervision, and changes in regional, state, and municipal guidelines. Clinical agencies and hospitals have taken steps to decrease workplace density and increase opportunities for social distancing. Patient and staff safety is the top concern of all health care facilities, and these safety measures have led to a decrease in the number of external clinical placements available to graduate students.

Fully accredited and licensed All the IHP clinical experiences, including virtual clinical simulations and working with standardized patients, are in alignment with the latest accreditation/licensing agencies.

These simulation cases are focused on developing critical thinking skills and are delivered in small groups with clinical faculty.

Expert clinical education staff Our clinical education staff, track coordinators, and faculty continue to work with our clinical agency partners to arrange clinical experiences. Senior administration speaks regularly to leaders at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH), and other affiliated sites to seek new and creative opportunities.

Because affiliated agencies and hospitals will continue to limit clinical placements to adhere to safety guidelines and reduce exposure to patients and health care workers, the clinical education portion of your curriculum will be unpredictable in the near term.

As a result, it is difficult to predict or guarantee with certainty exactly how and when your clinical education can be completed. Some students’ graduation may be delayed by weeks or more.

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Students Innovating at the IHP Changes at the Impact Practice Center, which houses client-centered rehabilitation centers in nursing, occupational therapy, physical therapy, and speech-language pathology, have been spearheaded by the IHP’s Virtual Clinical Response Team.

Pivoting to new modes of delivery The IHP has implemented new ways to deliver clinical hours and clinical skill development to students, including the use of telepractice, virtual simulation, and standardized patients.

Read “The Pandemic Pivot” article on our website

Providing direct care to COVID–19 patients More than 50 IHP students were the only nursing students providing direct patient care at “Boston Hope,” a 1,000-bed hospital run by Mass General Brigham during the early stages of the pandemic. They received a crash course in pandemic health care, seeing a convention center turned into a field hospital by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Watch a video about our students at Boston Hope

“Although the virtual

“I thought I was just

setting presented

going to get my

certain challenges,

clinical hours done

the telehealth

at Boston Hope, and

sessions were an

instead I had this life-

extremely valuable

altering experience

experience for me.”

that the IHP made

— Nikki Lam

possible for us.”

Doctor of Occupational Therapy student, who created individualized home programs for her young clients in the OT center.

— Melissa Richard IHP nursing student who cared for patients at Boston Hope.

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Our Guarantee to You Our faculty, clinical education staff, and track coordinators will be transparent about clinical opportunities and will work to provide the highest quality education within as close to the “normal” completion timeframe as possible.

Committed to your success and safety We are proud of the reputation that the MGH Institute has earned over the past 43 years.

Our successes in educating tomorrow’s health care leaders are reflected in our student retention rates, graduation rates, and licensing exam pass rates. We fully anticipate this legacy to continue through these challenges. While the coronavirus pandemic has permanently altered health care, our commitment to student success and safety remains steadfast.

Here to answer your questions We welcome you to participate in your program’s virtual events and encourage you to ask as many questions as needed to make you feel confident about your choice to attend MGH Institute of Health Professions. Applications to our programs have increased, so it is in your interest to deposit and hold your place in the upcoming semester.

We hope that you will join us in 2021!

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We welcome collaboration.

We welcome curiosity.

We welcome pioneers.

We welcome the future.

Watch Tomorrow Ready Video

www.mghihp.edu