More Than 5,000 Caregivers Attend Ebola Education Session

October 22, 2014

“When you have the job of taking care of a patient with a highly infectious disease, it’s scary,” Arjun Srinivasan, Associate Director for Healthcare-Associated Infection Prevention Programs at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, told the more than 5,000 healthcare workers who gathered at New York City’s Jacob Javits Convention Center Oct. 21 for an Ebola Education Session presented by the GNYHA/1199 Healthcare Education Project and the Partnership for Quality Care.

The purpose of the event was to provide information and allay those fears by educating caregivers on how to work safely and survive in an Ebola environment.

“I watched all those videos on Facebook and television and there’s no cure,” said Delfin Marilipina, an RN at Mt. Sinai Queens. “Here I will learn how to know if a patient might have Ebola and what I learn here today I can share with my co-workers. This is important.”

New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo told the more than 5,000 caregivers who attended and the thousands of others who viewed the live-streamed event that Ebola was a new challenge “to meet, understand, and conquer.” He stressed that all healthcare workers in all positions had to be involved in the effort to both deal with the virus and with people’s panic and anxieties.

“New Yorkers always rise to the occasion,” he said “and the spirit of organizing and compassion is what 1199 has always been about.”

1199SEIU Pres. George Gresham reminded attendees that being a healthcare worker is “a very special gift from God. Everybody can’t be a healthcare worker,” a point reiterated by New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio.

“This is not a field of work for the timid or weak,” said de Blasio. “You work hard and have a life of meaning and purpose.”

Both de Blasio and Cuomo said that New York City and State had been preparing for the possibility of Ebola for weeks with hospitals adding new protocols and trainings.

“New York’s hospitals are deeply committed to ensuring that their most valuable resource – their workers – are properly trained and educated to respond to potential Ebola cases,” said Greater New York Hospital Association President Kenneth E. Raske. “We stand ready 24/7 to provide the finest care while protecting our healthcare workforce.”

Sheldon Hoyte, a dialysis tech at Manhattan’s Renal Research Institute, came to the training, like most others, to learn how to protect himself from the virus.

“When the nurses in Texas contracted Ebola it made it generated a lot of fear and anxiety. Today’s session relieved some of that for me,” said Hoyte. “If I had to use one word to describe what I learned today I’d use two: education and preparation.”

The overall concern of all present, speakers and audience members, was safety: For healthcare workers to treat, feed, and transport patients with Ebola, and all other infectious diseases known and unknown, universal precautions are the order of the day.

A hands-on demonstration of the proper use of personal protective equipment (PPE) by Bryan Christensen of the CDC’s Domestic Infection Control Team for the Ebola Response and Mt. Sinai RN Barbara Smith was a study in taking the time to cover the body from head to foot with a partner/observer. They made sure each step, each alcohol swab, each disposal was done correctly. “Tantamount to safety is practice, practice, practice,” said Smith.

“If we’re prepared for Ebola, if it comes, we don’t have to be in a panic state,” said Long Island Jewish Medical Center medical assistant Denise Shields, after the session. “We can keep each other and our families safe. And we are going to need tons of hand sanitizers.”