‘Behind-the-Scenes’ Staff Provide Vital Support During Pandemic

By Sarah Marshall

When you hear “2020,” you probably cringe at first, then think of one of the most challenging years in recent memory. You also probably think about the countless health care and rescue workers who have been on the front lines. But, equally as important are those behind the scenes, like the staff at the Uniformed Services University looking out for the wellbeing of students, the veterinarians and veterinary technicians working around the clock to allow for continued, innovative research, or the librarians supporting a surge in literature searches for information related to COVID and pandemics. It surely takes a village, and these are just a few of the many unsung heroes working tirelessly to support the university during these challenging times.  

For starters, several teams of veterinarians, veterinary technicians, and animal husbandry personnel in USU’s Department of Laboratory Animal Resources (DLAR), have played a key role in controlling the spread of COVID-19 and getting to a vaccine. Army Maj. (Dr.) Jennifer LeFors, a veterinarian in DLAR, explained that while a COVID-19 vaccine may not have been developed at USU, we supported research directly related to the virus and the disease.

Veterinarians, veterinary technicians, and animal husbandry personnel in USU's Department of Laboratory Animal Resources have played a key role throughout
the pandemic, working all hours of the day and night, including weekends. (photo by MC3 Brooks Smith)

“A vaccine would not have been possible without laboratory animals and those responsible for them,” LeFors said. “Every day since the pandemic started, USU veterinary and husbandry care staff have been here … caring for our research animals. Our DLAR has put their heart and soul into meeting the necessary demands of research in the middle of a worldwide shutdown.”

She added that these particular heroes have continued to show up at all hours of the day and night, including weekends. 

“Each person in DLAR has given up so much to fully support critical research, and every individual’s story is different in regards to their sacrifices,” LeFors said. 

Similarly, the Office of Student Affairs (OSA) has put forth Herculean efforts to revise the clerkship year schedule, keeping this important aspect of medical education running smoothly. For USU students, clerkships begin after 18 months of classroom time, and consist of eight blocks of clinical education across six core clerkship specialties. Given USU’s nationwide campus, students complete these rotations at more than 20 hospitals around the country, with some students moving to a new hospital for the start of each new rotation. When the pandemic hit, clinical education came to a halt and students returned to the local area from across the country, explained promotable Army Lt. Col. (Dr.) Ashley Maranich, assistant dean for Clinical Sciences and an associate professor of Pediatrics. To say that revising their schedule was a challenge would be quite an understatement.

“As we worked to get them back into this critical educational activity, it became clear that we would need a new approach to scheduling clinical clerkships in order to accommodate protective measures against the spread of COVID,” Maranich said. “Many hospitals were willing to re-open their doors to our students. However, many required that our students complete a 14-day quarantine upon arrival before starting clinical work. The challenge? Figuring out how to get more than 170 students the combination of required rotations necessary in order to meet their graduation requirements, while minimizing travel and incorporating individual hospital quarantine requirements, which changed regularly as the pandemic evolved.”

After successfully making many revisions to the clerkship schedule, they did it all over again for the next class of students. As USU shifted to virtual learning, and the pandemic progressed, OSA also prioritized student needs, as influenced by the stresses of the pandemic and being virtual. These efforts included (and were certainly not limited to) forming a “Student Support During COVID-19 Task Force,” creating a newsletter promoting information about wellness, and hosting webinars, and offering tips for wellness while social distancing. 

OSA’s Dr. Kameha Bell, Wellness Program Coordinator and a member of USU’s Student Wellness Advisory Board, along with Air Force Maj. (Dr.) Ryan Landoll, assistant dean for Preclinical Sciences, led student wellness surveys to assess how students were doing academically and from a wellness perspective, and ultimately provided this feedback to leadership. USU’s facility dog, Shetland, also helped boost morale among students and staff by making cameos at meetings, sending out “notes” of encouragement for students before their exams, and through his Instagram page, @shetland.thewellnesspup.

USU students have been able to keep up with their training, thanks to support from many "behind the scenes" personnel, including Multidisciplinary Lab staff.
Their support has allowed students to still come in and use lab spaces in a physically-distanced format. (photo by Tom Balfour)

Continued Support for Students, Active Duty

Many officers and senior enlisted members in the Brigade have also been working behind the scenes to ensure our active duty members’ needs are still being met during these challenging times. Command Company Teams, for instance, played a pivotal role in supporting commencement last spring. Their efforts allowed for roughly 170 fourth-year medical students and 60 graduate-level nurses to graduate early to contribute to the fight against coronavirus pandemic response. These teams also coordinated out-processing and orders to temporary duty (TDY) assignments and their new duty stations for those graduates, and then coordinated the inprocessing and orientation for the new class of USU students.

Master Sgt. Bryan Konisiewicz, the senior enlisted advisor for the School of Medicine’s Air Force Command Team, noted that their team also supported the class of incoming students. Since many of these students were new to the Air Force, teaching them during a pandemic about their new roles as military officers was a challenge.

“While COVID-19 has definitely made our jobs interesting, we have been able to remain flexible and take care of the students’ needs without any major issues,” he said.

The School of Medicine’s Army Command Team’s company commander, promotable Capt. Jerry Hickey, explained their team also had to make many adaptations over the past year.  

“We adjusted a number of our procedures and battle rhythms to a digital platform to promote safety, while also ensuring that each student receives the necessary guidance and mentorship required as young officers,” Hickey said. “Our effects have had a positive impact on the students at USU. We have seen junior officers grow into confident leaders who take on increasing responsibilities and leadership positions in the organization. These students graduate and become world class health care providers and outstanding leaders with the Army.” 

Throughout the pandemic, the Graduate School of Nursing (GSN) commandant also coordinated TDY rotations and permanent changes of duty station (PCS) to and from the university.  The office continues to make sure students meet their readiness training requirements, and have access to the resources they need to be successful academically, explained Army Col. Craig Budinich, GSN commandant. Of course, all of this has been complicated by being relegated to virtual means, but the staff have still been able to serve “as the grease that keeps the GSN moving smoothly,” he said.  

Providing Support through Resources

USU’s Resource Management office has also been working behind the scenes to make sure staff have the funding they need for various programs and research endeavors. Andy Gwinnup, for one, took the lead on COVID financial reporting and updating financial information to brief the Defense Health Agency, while budget staff also managed COVID funds, creating and tracking those accounts.   

Jeff Allen and his Agreements staff also processed several Memorandums of Agreement with military treatment facilities, and reimbursed those for support costs related to important ongoing research efforts. Meanwhile, Steve Davis and his staff in Acquisitions awarded Cooperative Agreements for several COVID-related research projects, such as the Epidemiology, Immunology and Clinical Characteristics of Emerging Infectious Diseases with Pandemic Potential (EPICC), which is addressing critical knowledge gaps to further understand the natural history of this virus, among several other innovative projects.

Rhonda Allard, head of Reference & Interlibrary Loan in USU's Learning Resource Center, is one of the behind-the-scenes staff at USU keeping the university
on track during the COVID-19 pandemic. (photo by MC3 Brooks Smith)

Continued Support for Valuable Research

Reference librarians Rhonda Allard and Candace Norton in USU’s Learning Resource Center (LRC) saw a dramatic increase in students and staff needing literature search support over the last year, much of which was directly related to COVID topics. They also responded to a surge in demand for bibliographic searches for COVID and other pandemic-related topics. Their library search collaborations included a systematic review on critically ill or ventilated patients, hospitals’ surge capacity during pandemics, aeroevacuation of highly contagious patients, and the cardiac and mental health effects of COVID-19 in young adults.

LRC staff also made the transition to offering classes and workgroups virtually, providing safe training for students and staff. They continue to offer many of their services online, as the USU community remains predominantly remote, such as technical support and interlibrary loan delivery, and faculty, students, and staff can now reserve a space or computer workstation.

The Backbone

IT staff have also made major changes to accommodate a new virtual environment for work and education, and it has truly been a team effort to meet this new mission with as little disruption as possible. 

Staff still needed computers and equipment, which looked different when the world shut down. Gregory Woods led a deployment team that helped ship users their equipment, in lieu of campus visits -- a major undertaking.  In June of 2020, the IT department transitioned from Adobe Connect to Zoom for web conferencing, as the campus went virtual. To prepare the USU community for this switch, an IT team, led by Jeffrey John, offered training sessions to help staff and students learn how to use this new platform. There was also a huge uptick in requests for technical support for many online events.  

IT staff also set up virtual support rooms using Google Meet to provide immediate technical assistance to the community that was largely teleworking, when it was not possible for staff to simply walk up to the Help Desk.  These rooms were established for each technical service, such as Google and Zoom support, and general IT Support, and have proven effective in handling technical inquiries for teleworkers.  

During the pandemic, IT staff set up virtual support rooms using Google Meet to provide immediate technical assistance to the community that was largely
teleworking, when it was not possible for staff to simply walk up to the Help Desk. (photo by Sarah Marshall)

When exams went from in-person to virtual, Multidisciplinary Lab (MDL) staff went above and beyond, adding weekend exams to support the clerkship site students, based on their schedule changes. Led by MDL director Willie Allen, they also spent more time supporting the National Board of Medical Examiners (NBME) exams, making sure these have kept flowing smoothly and have monitored these exams from home, while placing orders based on new schedules and social distancing requirements. MDL staff also ordered and issued more PPE gear to keep faculty, CIO personnel, and staff safe, while keeping up with the orders for various departments, as well as for the national board subject and step exams. 

MDL staff have also continued to come on campus to support staff and groups who still need to conduct business and research in our labs and conference rooms. They have also supported the audiovisual components in our classrooms and, given the increase in remote meetings/learning, this has been especially important. Meanwhile, Ronald Rivenburgh and his staff have continued to support the Anatomical Teaching Lab, maintaining tissue condition and keeping equipment functioning, so that students can still come in and use the lab in a physically-distanced format.  

The MDL staff have also continuously kept meeting and learning spaces clean throughout the day, and have supported a drastic increase in requests for use of Rice Hall because of its size and ability to provide for physical distancing. This has meant working many extra hours to keep the spaces -- and the university -- operational. 

While the last year has tested patience, capabilities, and  strength at USU, the fight goes on. And though the world might look like a different place these days, USU labs have continued to produce imperative research, and classes, meetings and lectures have carried on all thanks to the many efforts taking place of so many behind the scenes staff at USU.