"Educators preparing healthcare workers amid COVID-19 threat"

The Columbia Regional Business Report interviewed Midlands Technical College faculty members for a news article. “Educators preparing healthcare workers amid COVID-19 threat” was published on May 6, National Nurses Day on May.

MTC faculty members Shirley Bannister, nursing department chair, and Eddie Jackson, respiratory care program director, spoke to editor Melina Waldrop about the challenges the health care community is facing right now.

An excerpt:

The coronavirus crisis is also affecting other healthcare disciplines. Eddie Jackson, respiratory care program director at MTC, said he’s seen increased interest in that field.

“We have an intake process in which we have an information session for the incoming students as well as an interview,” Jackson said. “Several of the students who were interviewing stated that the COVID crisis put more interest into the field for them, more excitement about being a participant and being able to help out.”

… Bannister has also spoken with a nurse who has moved away from her family, including two small children, to live communally with other nurses during the pandemic in an effort to minimize the spread of the virus. Bannister is impressed by that sacrifice, as well as by stories of nurses providing contact between patients and their families through smart tablets or phones.

“We’ve had nursing graduates who recently called us back and said. ‘We went to New York to help there,’ ” Bannister said. “That was really exciting, to know that we had Midlands Tech students, or Midlands Tech nurses now, who actually volunteered to help with COVID in New York City.”

Read more of "Educators preparing healthcare workers amid COVID-19 threat" from the Columbia Regional Business Report.

If you are interested in career in health care, please visit our School of Health Care webpage to learn about programs like imaging, laboratory, nursing, pharmacy and respiratory care.