Author: vermontnews

On Friday, April 3, speech pathologist Katie Gildea ’03, pauses from a round of home visits on Manhattan’s Upper West Side to discuss her work during the pandemic, as she continues to travel the streets and subways of New York, an essential worker in a city on lockdown. Eight-and-a-half months pregnant, Gildea takes all the pre-cautions — “and then some” — to keep herself and the people she visits safe. Motivation in the difficult circumstances comes from her commitment to patients in this neighborhood she has served for the past eleven years and solidarity with colleagues facing the same challenge. Sharing a line voiced often these days by those in healthcare and helping professions, Gildea says, “This is what we signed up for.” 

As a medical speech pathologist meeting patients in their homes, Gildea takes a role in easing the burden on over-taxed hospitals and their staffs. People recovering from strokes, often dealing with swallowing disorders, are among those she helps. In the midst of the crisis, these patients are being sent home earlier, leaving them susceptible to other health issues, particularly pneumonia. Seeing the patients in person, being sure they are following proper rehab and diet protocols, Gildea and fellow speech pathologists are helping make sure these patients aren’t re-hospitalized. 

A native of Westfield, NJ, when it came time for college she followed her brother Jim ’92 and sister Cristin ’95 in heading north to Vermont. Looking back to her days at UVM, Gildea says she found mentors in professors such as Rebecca McCauley, Barry Guitar and Patty Prelock. “I’ve always loved my work and I know that’s hard to come by,” she says. “I feel my education at UVM, and later in grad school, helped me achieve that. I’m so grateful for it.” 

That gratitude abides, even as Gildea leaves her husband, now working from home, and nearly three-year-old daughter behind in their Battery Park apartment in Lower Manhattan and heads to work in the pandemic red zone. She’s determined to keep working “until the baby makes her grand entrance,” Gildea says. And she adds, “We’ll tell her about this years from now and teach her about the importance of empathy and unity during difficult times.”

Source: UVM News

The University of Vermont has given nursing students the option of early graduation so they can enter the nursing workforce and provide support to overstressed healthcare workers during the height of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

All 94 members of the class opted to graduate on May 1 rather than in the third week of the month when other students at the university will earn their degrees.

UVM is among the first colleges in the country to allow nurses to graduate early.

Vermont’s State Board of Nursing will offer students temporary permits so they can begin staffing hospitals and other healthcare facilities in the state immediately after they graduate. Nursing school graduates normally begin work in early August, after they’ve taken a licensure exam and become registered nurses.  

Typically about half of UVM’s graduating nurses work in Vermont, with the others working at out-of-state healthcare facilities. Most states issue temporary permits to nursing school graduates. Students who choose to work immediately will be able to take the exam and become RN’s after the immediate crisis has passed.

“The timing is what is so important,” said Rosemary Dale, chair of the Department of Nursing in UVM’s College of Nursing and Health Sciences. “Healthcare workers need support now, when the pandemic is at full force. Our students will be able to make a difference.” 

“Our graduating nurses deserve great credit,” said Scott Thomas, interim dean of UVM’s College of Nursing and Health Sciences. “These are challenging times, and they have careers to begin. But many are stepping up the plate and looking for ways to help now. I couldn’t be more proud of them.”  

Senior nursing student  Kathryn Calisti, of Yarmouth, Mass., will begin work in early May on a general surgery floor at the UVM Medical Center, where she worked as a student intern and has been offered a job.

The decision to begin work during the pandemic was a difficult one; she called her parents to talk it through. But in the end, she decided that going to work now was the right thing to do.

“If you can get into the hospital a little earlier, and help out, that’s what you want to do,” said Calisti.

The pandemic is taxing what was already a severely stressed nursing workforce.

Economists at Georgetown University estimate that 200,000 nursing positions are projected to go unfilled at hospitals across the country this year. In all, one-in-eight nursing positions will go unstaffed.

Nursing students like those at the University of Vermont could help ease the pressure. About 155,000 registered nurses graduate each year in the United States.

The early graduation is pending approval of UVM’s Faculty Senate on April 20. The Faculty Senate’s president, Thomas Chittenden, said he saw no reason why the senate wouldn’t approve.

Source: UVM News

Three trailblazing University of Vermont professors were named Fellows of the Ecological Society of America (ESA) today for outstanding contributions to the science of ecology. 

UVM’s trio of new ESA Fellows are: Aimée Classen and Taylor Ricketts (Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources), and Nicholas Gotelli (College of Arts and Sciences). All are Fellows of UVM’s Gund Institute for Environment.

UVM had more faculty honored as ESA Fellows today than any other institution. The Catamounts join a distinguished group of 22 new ESA fellows from Columbia University, University of California, and other leading institutions.  

“Today’s national recognition of these outstanding University of Vermont professors shows yet again how the environment is a core strength of this great university,” said Patty Prelock, University of Vermont provost. “We couldn’t be more proud of these pioneering teacher-scholars for their contributions to real-world problems in ecology.”

Aimée Classen, Professor, Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources, Gund Institute for Environment

From soil microbes to GHG emissions, Aimée Classen investigates diverse ecosystems (forests, meadows, bogs, tropics, boreal, temperate) to inform predictions of how global change will alter ecosystems. In one project, Classen is measuring global warming’s impacts on mountain landscapes in 10 nations and 5 continents with international collaborators. She recently received a Gund Institute Catalyst Award to develop innovative low-cost, flexible sensors with a CEMS colleague to better study biogeochemical responses to global climate change in extreme environments. Classen is editor-in-chief of the ESA journal Ecological Monographs.

Classen was recognized by the ESA for: “creative leadership and vision for international research collaborations using mountain ecosystems as models for climate change research… and for stellar research contributions to the ecology of global environmental change, including how soil microbial diversity shapes ecosystems, and environmental controls on soil nutrient cycling and carbon storage.”

Nicholas Gotelli, Professor, College of Arts and Sciences, Department of Biology, Gund Institute for Environment

Through his research, Nick Gotelli addresses basic questions about the organization of animal, plant and nutrient communities. What forces determine species composition and abundance? How does competition affect community structure? What factors control population growth and the risk of extinction? His recent research explores the collapse of aquatic food webs, species interactions of ants and their responses to experimental warming, and the measurement, analysis and simulation modeling of species richness, biodiversity, and ecosystem function. Gotelli is the co-creator of EcoSimR, the R modelling software package.

Gotelli was recognized by the ESA for: “contributing outstanding intellectual leadership in ecology and ecological methodology to the fields of biodiversity science, community assembly, climate change, demography, and species distributions, as well as through his service to the ESA.”

Taylor Ricketts, Professor, Rubenstein School for Environment and Natural Resources, Fellow, Gund Institute for Environment

As a teacher and scholar, Taylor Ricketts explores a critical question: How can we meet the needs of people and nature in an increasingly crowded, changing world? He is a pioneer in the field of ecosystem services, which quantifies the benefits that nature provides to people. Consistently among the world’s most cited researchers, Ricketts’ over 130 scientific publications range from investigations of climate impacts on global crop pollination to analyses of the economic and health benefits provided to humans by forests, urban parks, wetlands, reefs, and other natural areas. He has co-authored and co-edited two UN-sponsored efforts to assess global ecosystems and their contributions to human wellbeing. 

Ricketts, who leads the Gund Institute for Environment, was recognized by the ESA for: “His contributions to understanding ecosystems and the services they provide for human well-being; his discoveries related to pollination services for crops; and his unique ability to bridge the science and decision-making worlds, ensuring that new knowledge about ecosystems services is used by decision makers in conservation communities and beyond.” 

With today’s announcement, UVM and the Gund Institute now have four ESA Fellows. Classen, Gotelli and Ricketts join Nathan Sanders (RSENR), who was named an ESA Fellow in 2018. 

The Ecological Society of America was founded in 1915 and is the world’s largest community of professional ecologists.

Learn more about the Gund Institute’s annual fellowships for PhD students and postdoctoral researchers.

 

Source: UVM News