Across Country Alumni Step Up to COVID Challenges
Across the country, Dominican University alumni have risen to the challenges brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. For the past year, healthcare alumni have worked tirelessly to care for COVID patients, set up COVID testing, redeploy resources and staff, and administer vaccines.
Amy Vavolizza-Runge ’96
In Las Vegas, Nevada, Amy Vavolizza-Runge ’96 is a Clinical Nurse Manager at the University of Southern Nevada and was named one of 10 Health Care Headliners by Vegas Inc. Health Care Quarterly Magazine in February. She was featured on the magazine cover and profiled in the winter 2021 edition. Vavolizza-Runge was recognized for managing the COVID-19 testing sites at the Las Vegas Convention Center, which provided more than 65,000 tests. She also helped educate the public on how to prevent the spread of the disease, organized a large drive-thru Halloween celebration for children, and arranged for seniors to be able to safely pick-up free Thanksgiving meals.
Nevada Governor Steve Sisolak praised Vavolizza-Runge on social media stating, “Nevada’s healthcare workers have been vital in our state’s testing and vaccination efforts and Amy Runge from University Medical Center of Southern Nevada is no exception. I would like to acknowledge her leadership in managing one of Nevada’s largest testing sites and helping slow the spread of COVID-19 – Thank you!”
Conlan Pierce ’13
Over the past several years, Conlan Pierce ’13 traveled around the world working with medical organizations in Mongolia, Ecuador, South Africa, and Uganda. However, he was in the United States in March 2020 as a worldwide pandemic started spreading in the U.S. At the same time, Pierce learned he would be starting a general surgical residency at the Carle Foundation Hospital in Urbana, Illinois a few months later.
Pierce began his residency in July and noticed COVID-19 cases rising in the fall as ICU beds began filling up. In December, he worked in the ICU unit helping to care for some of the patients. Pierce said he turned to the more experienced ICU doctors for their analysis of what made COVID-19 so different from other infections. “There are some big differences,” Pierce said. “There seemed to be a more prolonged recovery course. With some other types of infections within a certain period of time, generally, the patient could recover, whereas with a lot of these COVID patients, it just seems to really drag on for weeks, and weeks, and weeks. And then we actually see them start to get better.” In addition, he said, blood clots are a big concern.
Pierce is finishing up his first year of a five-year residency. He spoke with students at Dominican University in September 2019 about how he decided to leave a job in the pharmaceutical industry to pursue a career in medicine and has traveled around the country and the world to gain invaluable experience.
Carolyn Brand-Monroe ’02
Former Kaplan Scholar and recipient of the Badami Outstanding Alumna Award Carolyn Brand-Monroe ’02 works for Optum HouseCalls supervising 44 nurse practitioners who conduct at–home wellness visits for Medicare Advantage members in northern New Jersey. Brand-Monroe said the organization took a multi-pronged approach to respond to COVID-19. One of the first priorities was getting the needed personal protective equipment to protect the nurses and the patients. There was a two-month pause on house visits as new safety procedures and protocols were put in place. Virtual visits were set up initially and then nurses returned to the homes after patients could be properly screened.
Brand-Monroe said some of her nurses were redeployed to nursing homes, where their help was desperately needed, and others answered hotlines. “As nurses, I feel like this is a career that is more of a calling and I don’t want to say that we live for pandemics, because we certainly do not want to see pandemics all the time,” she said. “But when it happens, you just stand up and you say ‘I’m a nurse and this something I need to respond to and we’ll get this taken care of.’” In addition to helping set up all the new procedures and redeploying staff, Brand-Monroe went back out into the field herself, when needed.
Students Administer Vaccines
Even future alumni – Dominican University nursing students — have stepped up by volunteering to administer COVID-19 vaccinations at Good Samaritan Hospital in Suffern, N.Y. The student volunteers are all juniors and seniors, have been certified in vaccinations, and received additional hands-on training to meet Department of Health standards.
Professor AnneMarie McDermott said, “It’s really important because for many years our students have gone there clinically and the Good Sam nurses work with our students and give so much that we want to give back to them.” McDermott said this is one way we can work together to meet the needs of the community.