The University of Kansas Health System is treating a total of 55 COVID patients today, up from 44 Friday. Other significant numbers:
- 32 with the active virus today, 28 Friday
- 3 in ICU, 2 Friday
- 0 on a ventilator, 0 Friday
- 23 hospitalized, but out of acute infection phase, 16 Friday
Key points from today’s guests on National Volunteer Day:
Jennifer McCormack, volunteer, The University of Kansas Health System
- Pausing volunteering at the hospital due to COVID was very difficult. She didn't think it would be that hard, but she really missed the interaction with the patients and employees.
- Believes we have the best patients and the volunteers get so much more back than what we ever give them.
- When we came back after COVID the employees would stop us in the hall and thank the volunteers for coming back and tell us how much they missed them.
- Volunteering is so rewarding.
Brian Osbourne, volunteer, The University of Kansas Health System
- Probably the greatest thing about volunteering is about how it makes you feel – it reaffirms his faith in people.
- Enjoys helping people that might be stressed by being in a hospital and not knowing where to go.
- He learned the value of a friendly volunteer to help when he had a positive experience with a volunteer while his wife was being treated for lymphoma.
- There was always a staff member or volunteer that would say “Hey, can I help you out?”
- He appreciated it so much, he decided to volunteer to do that as well.
Vanessa Goldsberry, director of volunteer and guest services, The University of Kansas Health System
- We have seen a decrease in older volunteers and she thinks that some might be fearful to come back into an environment where they could potentially get COVID because of the high interaction with people.
- We always follow all of the pillars of infection prevention – all of our volunteers are fully trained on how to be safe while they're here, including hand hygiene, masking, and more.
- We do not allow our volunteers to enter rooms of patients who are in isolation rooms, COVID rooms, anything of that nature. That's for the safety of our volunteers and for our patients.
- Volunteers are vaccinated for flu and COVID.
- Popular volunteer areas are the NICU – holding NICU babies as part of the rocking baby program is very popular. Our NICU team really missed our volunteers during our pause.
- Pathfinding is another popular position that we're really looking at to help guide people throughout the hospital.
Dr. Greg Nawalanic, clinical psychologist, The University of Kansas Health System
- Volunteering is such an amazing opportunity to help gain another aspect and sense of your identity – it becomes something else that can define you.
- It gives you something to talk about socially and helps feel a sense of self-esteem that you are contributing and you're meaningfully impacting something.
- This is somewhere where there is not pressure – you come and it's immediately rewarding. It feels good. It's something that helps you leave with your head a little higher.
- With the retiree population, it's this sense of loss of a career and the importance of finding something else that's meaningful and engaging. It's so valuable.
- When we think about something like volunteering, this is their reward for contributing and giving back. It's that reinforcement that reward that makes the behavior more likely to be repeated.
Dr. Dana Hawkinson, director of infection control and prevention, The University of Kansas Health System
- We know during the last couple of weeks there was a slight bump in COVID cases compared to the previous few weeks.
- And we could be seeing the result of that now with our increase in hospitalizations as we know hospitalizations lag cases by a couple of weeks.
- A recent, limited study found that there were signs of increased or accelerated aging of brains in adolescents during the pandemic.
- This is similar to other studies we've seen where they've actually looked at brain imaging – particularly MRI – to see developmental changes, which is not surprising.
Tuesday, December 6 at 8:00 a.m. is the next Morning Medical Update. Every second, someone over the age of 65 in the U.S. falls. It's a statistic that includes increased injury and death, making it a growing public health concern. We’ll learn about the top three common causes of falls and what you can do to avoid a take down.
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