Michigan State University (MSU) in East Lansing, Michigan, hosts numerous international students and visiting scholars each academic year. International students from more than 130 countries compose approximately 10 percent of MSU's student population. More than 5,050 international students and scholars attended MSU in fall 2009, and more than 1,000 of them lived in on-campus residence halls and apartments. Emergency response and pandemic planning concerns on campus several years ago pushed MSU to prepare for a potential need to close residence halls.
Student Engagement
The 2009 H1N1 pandemic flu outbreak forced the University of Chicago to make immediate housing plans after the flu virus was first identified in California and Mexico. So, when H1N1 hit in 2009, two things happened that influenced their response strategy immediately, said Dr. Kristine Bordenave, director of the Student Care Center (SCC): One, the university had one of the first H1N1 infections in the nation, a hospital staff member; and two, the timing of the academic year.
Savvy planning and resource use helped Pennsylvania State University (PSU) make the best of the challenge of holding mass vaccination clinics. A key part of PSU's success was including upper-level nursing students as vaccinators.
The nursing students were responsible for administering H1N1 vaccine on campus under the guidance of nursing faculty and with the oversight of the University Health Service (UHS) assistant director for risk management, clinical director, and infection control manager.
The University of Chicago developed a system in April 2009 for having students assist with education and management in H1N1 vaccine clinics. The students, called Peer Health Educators, or PHEs, worked in the clinics while providing key hygiene and self-care education information to people throughout campus.
During two days at the beginning of the H1N1 outbreak in fall 2009, members of the Purdue Chapter of the American Red Cross, along with other student volunteers, distributed brief informational materials on H1N1 to students while riding CityBus vehicles on routes serving the campus. The students also gave passengers four ounce bottles of waterless hand sanitizer. The object was to use direct student-to-student communication to create awareness of the illness, symptoms, remediation and containment strategies, while encouraging immunization with the H1N1 vaccine as it became available.
A Health Advocate is a student appointed as a health resource in his or her residence hall or apartment community, fraternity, or sorority. Health Advocates attend weekly classes at the student health service, where they are specially trained to respond to common health-related issues. They share information and prevention strategies with other students in their hall or house and also refer students to other health resources on campus.
During the 2009 H1N1 outbreak, ill students living in on-campus housing posed a special concern for the University of Iowa (UI). The Office of Residence Life focused many of their efforts on training Resident Assistants (RAs) to respond appropriately to ill students living in their halls.
When H1N1 vaccine began to trickle in to the University of Iowa (UI) campus in fall 2009, the Student Health Service relied on a familiar resource to help vaccinate students. UI health sciences students, administering vaccine under staff supervision, formed a strong clinical and logistical foundation of the H1N1 vaccination campaign.
UI's nursing students have always helped with seasonal influenza vaccination clinics on campus, said Lisa James, RN, MSN, Interim Administrative Director, Student Health Service.
As the fall 2009 semester loomed at Pennsylvania State University, it became clear to Shelley Haffner that she needed extra help in order to respond to the threat of novel H1N1 influenza on campus. Haffner is the infection control nurse manager at University Health Service, and the person responsible for infection control and prevention.
