NPHW Activities Provide Life-Saving Trainings
Members Of The NYMC Community Were Able To Learn Critical Emergency Response Skills In Recognition Of National Public Health Week
New York Medical College (NYMC) recognized National Public Health Week (NPHW) with a series of life-saving trainings presented by the Center for Disaster Medicine (CDM). More than 80 participants, including students and faculty, took part in the trainings on how to administer naloxone, a drug used to help reverse opioid overdoses, and Stop the Bleed. The events were held in collaboration with New York State Public Health Association, the Westchester County Department of Health, and NYMC student organizations Student Health Care Executives (StuHe) and Scientista Foundation Club.
“This week’s national public health week was absolutely fantastic,” said Bryan Batista, Master of Public Health (M.P.H.) Class of 2022 and president of StuHe. “Together with the Scientista Foundation Club, we were able to organize a week centered around developing crucial emergency response skills.”
The naloxone training featured up-close demonstrations of the administration of the drug, which is used frequently by first responders when treating overdose patients and the Stop the Bleed training showed how to properly apply tourniquets and gauzes to severe wounds.
Mr. Batista said that one great benefit of the event was that it fostered collaboration between public health and School of Medicine (SOM) students at NYMC. "This event would have not been possible without the dedication of StuHe Vice President Taylor Gerber [M.P.H. student in health policy and management], and Scientista members Cher Tang, M.P.H. [SOM Class of 2024], and Ma’at Mack [SOM Class of 2024] who pioneered the event and helped see it through. I am grateful for my team and the rest of the student members and staff who made this event a possibility.”
“I think that the collaboration among Westchester County Department of Health, Center for Disaster Medicine, New York State Public Health Association and School of Medicine and School of Health Sciences and Practice students was inspiring,” said George W. Contreras, M.E.P., M.P.H., M.S., CEM, FAcEM, assistant director of the CDM and assistant professor in the Institute of Public Health. “I was pleased that the initiative came from the students in Scientista Foundation Club and StuHe. It speaks volumes that these students were so interested in promoting these public health topics such as opioid overdoses and life-threatening bleeding injuries.”
The NPHW events were so well-received, according to Mr. Batista and Mr. Contreras, that the groups are working on coordinating additional dates for the trainings so that more students, faculty and staff can participate in them.
