Weekly Updates: Week of Sept. 7
Hershey, College of Medicine employees can sign up for flu shots
During this year’s flu vaccine campaign, Penn State Health’s goals are to keep employees safe and make getting the shot as easy as possible.
Hershey employees who do not have access to a flu vaccination in their work area may now schedule an appointment. College of Medicine employees can also receive a flu shot from Hershey Medical Center’s Employee Health department.
Hershey will give a high-dose vaccine to employees more than 65 years old on Monday, Oct. 5, and Thursday, Oct. 22, or by appointment in the Employee Health office.
Consent forms will be available in advance outside the Employee Health office and at all appointment locations. Print the Vaccine Information Sheet and review it prior to your appointment.
For additional information, contact Lori Bechtel at 717-561-8280.
St. Joseph Flu Shot Clinics
St. Joseph’s employee flu shot clinics begin today and run through Wednesday, Oct. 28. Clinics will be offered at both the Bern Township and Downtown Reading campuses at various dates and times to accommodate all work schedules. See the calendar here for details. If you get your flu shot elsewhere, send proof of immunization here.
Eye protection available for Penn State Health employees
Beginning this week, Penn State Health will make eye protection available to all staff.
Wearing eye protection in addition to a face mask ensures the eyes, nose and mouth all are protected from exposure to droplets from respiratory secretions during patient care encounters. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Pennsylvania Department of Health have recommended adding eye protection to safety protocols in areas where transmission of COVID-19 is possible.
Penn State Health is updating its safety protocols to require health care workers in direct contact with patients to use eye protection in addition to a face mask.
Direct care settings include:
- Inpatient rooms
- Outpatient exam rooms
- Therapeutic treatment rooms
- Diagnostic rooms
The added use of eye protection does not diminish the importance of universal masking, which remains an essential employee safety measure.
Eye Protection During Patient Care FAQs provides additional information.
Two Hershey Medical Center nurses named 2020 Nightingale Awards of Pennsylvania finalists
Hershey Medical Center’s Elisha Peregino and Pam Keller have been selected as finalists for the 2020 Nightingale Awards of Pennsylvania in the Clinical Advanced Practice Registered Nurse category.
Keller is a nurse practitioner in minimally invasive gynecology surgery, and Peregino is a nurse practitioner in neurosurgery.
Recipients are judged on their demonstration of excellence in several areas, including how they significantly influence the quality of patient care, create collaborative environments for the practice of nursing, model caring and compassion and contribute to healing and health in the community.
The Nightingale Awards of Pennsylvania organization recognizes exemplary nursing practice and grants scholarships to students pursuing degrees in nursing at all levels. The organization selects nurses nominated by their peers for recognition in one of nine categories.
The finalists will be honored, and the winners will be announced at the virtual 31st Annual Awards Gala Friday, Oct. 23.
New computational tool allows researchers to predict key functional sites in proteins based on structure
A new tool developed by researchers at the College of Medicine may be useful for protein engineering and drug design. The technology uses a protein’s structure to predict its allosteric sites and pathways, which regulate many biological processes.
According to Nikolay Dokholyan, professor of pharmacology, the tool’s ability to predict allosteric sites in proteins may be useful for developing targeted therapeutics for certain disease states. He said many drugs on the market, such as G Protein-Coupled Receptor drugs, may cause unintended side effects because they target proteins that are similar in structure to their intended target.
“Drugs designed to target specific allosteric sites on a protein of interest can hopefully avoid side effects caused by drugs that target similar proteins,” Dokholyan said.
Get ready — Zoom changes coming Sept. 27
To ensure the security of meetings, effective Sunday, Sept. 27, Zoom will update default meeting settings to require either a waiting room or passcode for all meetings. If neither is enabled, Zoom will enable a waiting room.
The following three updates will also be made to align with Penn State’s recommended default settings:
- Participants must use passwords to join with audio only (this only affects meetings and webinars that require a password).
- Guest participants will be identified with the word “guest” after their name and an orange background.
- Zoom will mute participants upon entry.
If not already in use, these changes will affect your workflow. For detailed information, review the following job aids and quick reference guides:
Host
Participant
If you are in a support role and are regularly scheduling multiple Zoom meetings for someone else, make sure you are using the Zoom scheduling privilege. Without using the Zoom scheduling privilege, you may experience Zoom not allowing individuals to host multiple meetings at the same time.
Visit the Zoom Infonet site for additional information. Information Sessions will be scheduled the week of Sept. 20 and communicated in the Daily Brief next week.
Consolidating tools — Microsoft Teams replaces Skype for Business on Sept. 28
From instant messaging to virtual meetings to audio calling, Information Services helps ensure the technology on which your teams rely, such as Skype for Business, can help you get your job done.
To better leverage and centralize available communication and collaboration tools, Penn State Health and the College of Medicine will transition to Microsoft Teams on Monday, Sept. 28.
Teams leverages much of what Skype for Business offers and expands what’s possible, integrating chat or instant messaging, online meetings, calling, file management and a project workspace all into one interface. With this transition, Teams will become the communications and collaboration service for Penn State Health and the College of Medicine, and Information Services will decommission Skype for Business.
Visit the Infonet site for detailed Teams job aids, and continue to watch the Daily Brief for more information.
Medical students recognize Women in Medicine Month
September is Women in Medicine Month, and the College of Medicine’s chapter of the American Medical Women’s Association is celebrating the many accomplishments of our own exceptional physicians.
These physicians have been nominated by medical students.Take a moment to recognize them, and find a way to support and appreciate the women in medicine you work with each day.
Dr. Melissa Boltz
Students say Dr. Melissa Boltz, a surgeon specializing in emergency general and endocrine surgery, is a role model because of her medical knowledge, technical skills and how she treats her colleagues and patients.
“Dr. Boltz has left a lasting impression on me,” one student said, “reminding me that it is on every one of us to create a better work environment in medicine and how one person’s simple caring actions can lead to positive experiences for others.”
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