Robyn Urlacher
Clinical Coordinator
Greetings to you all!
As you read about in "Notes from GB", the Respiratory Care Department has gone through some major changes since the last newsletter! The most significant to me is the fact that the classroom, lab rooms and Education offices are no longer inside the RT department. We have our own home now, which initially was very strange, but now we are realizing the benefits. It is very nice to have our offices close to the classroom again and we (as well as the students) are really loving the fact that we have two nice lab rooms and a resource center for the students. THANK YOU to GB for working so hard for many years to get us this beautiful, functional and practical space!!
The current intern class finishes their second clinical block which included the following rotations: Critical Care, Lead, PICU, Heart (EKG’s and observing in the Cath Lab), Innovis and Clinic (time in Adult Pulmonary Clinic, Pediatrics Clinic, and Tobacco/Asthma Education). The final class block will run from early January through February, leading into the third and final clinical block. This longest block includes several weeks of intensive care (NICU, PICU, Cardiac ICU, Critical Care), PFT, Anesthesia, and Sleep Medicine and Home Care. The majority of our clinicals take place at MeritCare, but we are also very fortunate to have our "Metropolitan Medical Center" rotation where all the students spend one week at a Minneapolis hospital. We plan to use four facilities this year: Fairview University, Mercy Hospital, Abbott Northwestern and North Memorial. This should be an excellent opportunity for our students to see how different RT departments work, what it is like to work in a large city, and even meet some potential employers. Our clinical rotations and variety of affiliates continue to be major assets to our program. I am very grateful to all who have so warmly welcomed our students and taken the time to teach them valuable skills and tools.
In March, we will be interviewing and selecting our next class of twelve interns. We are expecting abougt 18 applicants this time, which is up from the past several years. We are shaping up to have a very busy spring!
On a personal note, my house is fairly busy these days as well! Keith and I are having lots of fun raising our two wonderful children: Mason (3) and Karli (10 months).
I hope this newsletter finds you all happy, healthy and enjoying life. Until next time……….Robyn