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Ramp-up roundup: Important updates regarding on-campus work for the week ending June 19

Dr. Terry Wolpaw, vice dean of educational affairs; Dr. Leslie Parent, vice dean for research and graduate studies; and Dr. Charles Lang, associate dean for graduate studies, emailed faculty, staff and students on June 19 about the College of Medicine’s progress toward ramping back up on-campus activity.

Thank you for continuing to ensure a safe place for everyone to work as we navigate bringing our employees, faculty and students back on campus. Dauphin County moves to the green phase today, and we want to remind you that the College of Medicine is working under a different COVID-response structure, in coordination with efforts at Penn State Health. At this time, please continue to work from home if you have not been asked to return. As we head into next week, we continue to need your help:

  • A mask is required at all times and must be worn as soon as you enter the building.
  • Please remember there is no eating or drinking in the hallways or public areas. We have placed signs on tabletops as reminders. There are designated areas where you can remove your mask to eat or drink, as long as you remain 6 feet apart, practice meticulous hand hygiene and clean the tabletops and other surfaces.
  • Entering the College and online check-in – all College employees should continue to enter via the BMR or main College entrance in the Crescent for temperature and symptom screening. Everyone is required to scan their ID badge upon entering (even if the sliding doors are open). Please complete the very short, web-based form at med.psu.edu/checkin before arriving at the screening station, and show your green checkmark to the screener. This information, in combination with our weekly research schedules, will be essential for contact tracing at the College in the case of a reported COVID-19 infection.
  • For anyone who develops symptoms consistent with COVID-19, please contact your primary care physician, Employee or Student Health, and your supervisor, but do not come in to work.

Return to On-Campus Work Form

Starting Monday, June 22, 2020, all managers of College of Medicine non-research faculty and staff will be required to fill out a “Return-to-Work Authorization” form if they feel their staff need to return to work for the first time. The form only needs to be filled out once. It can be found here. Please note that this form does not replace the daily online check-in for contact tracing as noted above.

Library Reopening

Plans are underway to reopen the Harrell Health Services Library by mid-July. College of Medicine leadership, facilities and others are working to ensure a safe place for faculty, staff and students to study and learn. More information to come.

Research Update

Research ramp-up: The College transitioned to phase 3 on June 17, and there was a noticeable increase in the number of researchers and staff in labs and hallways. It was exciting to watch our research engine begin to move forward and pick up speed. Face masks and physical distancing are still required and compliance appears to be quite good.

Lab weekly schedules: We continue to ask all labs to submit their weekly schedules to the chair or designee for review, and then upload your files into Box. Although College of Medicine graduate students are permitted to conduct lab research, all on-campus summer internships and in-person medical student research projects are still suspended until phase 4. Clinical research activities will remain unchanged from last week, but we are working closely with University leadership to transition to the next phase as soon as possible.

Education Update

Education ramp-up: Another successful week has passed since we brought the fourth-year medical students back to the clinical setting. This week, our physician assistant students also returned to complete their final two weeks of Family and Community Medicine rotation. We are continuing to evaluate how we will bring the incoming first-year students onto our campus and utilize pre-clerkship learning settings. The committee determining the number of learners that can be present in any given classroom while still ensuring social distancing is developing their plans to be submitted for review in the coming week. We will share more information about classroom use as it becomes available.

Medical students: Fourth-year medical students from the Hershey and University Park Curriculum Track have successfully navigated their return to clinical settings for their acting internships and advanced clinical electives. Third-year clerkship students are looking forward to their return to direct patient care. Dean Black has approved their return on July 13. We are now evaluating how we will bring the incoming first-year students onto our campus and utilize classroom and remote learning settings. Second-year medical students will have a combination of virtual and in-person learning on their return to campus in early August.

Physician assistant students: Our second-year physician assistant students began their Family and Community Medicine (FCM) clinical rotation on June 1 by participating in telehealth visits. With the increase in face-to-face visits in the FCM offices, the physician assistant students then moved into the office settings on June 15 to participate directly in face-to-face patient care for the final two weeks of their rotation. Our first-year physician assistant class began their studies in May and continue to learn remotely.

Graduate Education: We are working closely with Medical Education, the PA Program, facilities and hospital leadership to set new occupancy limits for all lecture halls, classrooms and educational spaces in the College. Such information is necessary as we begin to identify space for on-campus educational activities that meet or exceed physical distancing policies for our students and faculty. We anticipate that many of our fall courses will be held in-person, but we will also offer a synchronous Zoom option for students. Other courses will only be taught remotely. We anticipate that more definitive information on the delivery method for specific courses will be announced by the end of June. The same hybrid format will undoubtedly be used for the orientation of our incoming class of 386 graduate students. Research labs are now open for our graduate students.

News and Information

For continued updates on the College of Medicine, please read the Daily Brief that is sent each weekday via email and visit med.psu.edu/coronavirus where information is added daily to keep you informed.

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