October 2, 2020 | CRT Update Dear RVU Family, October brings cooler weather, beautiful fall foliage, pumpkins and also the start of flu season. If you have not yet received your influenza vaccine, please schedule it as soon as you can. Let’s be vigilant in mitigating all risks in preventing all communicable infections by getting vaccinated and continue observing social distancing and wearing our masks this fall and winter.   Updates and reminders for this week are as follows: New Contact Tracing Cases. We have had two more positive cases since our last email; both were clinical year students in CO. Self-serve printers are now available for student use.  To learn how, please go to this link and carefully follow the instructions.  All students are allocated $250 in printing funds.  If you are a 2nd year student and have paid for additional funds, your account balance will reflect your ending balance as of 6/30/20 plus $250. Employee Assistance Program (EAP). Our HR Department has launched an improved employee benefit program. This program provides access to significant resources and is in support of RVU and CRT guiding principles to further the well-being, health and safety of our employees and their families. While […]

Dear RVU Family,  This week’s email is unfortunately not as cheery as previous ones. COVID-19 cases are rising in many states (especially UT) and it has once again made its way into our campus. The good news is that our Contact Tracing Team contained it quickly and prevented its spread so far. The bad news is that many students were forced to miss required labs due to exposure. During our investigation into this incident, we found that many RVU people are not wearing masks and social distancing appropriately when off-campus. We appreciate the honesty because these facts influence our medical officers’ decision-making process. However, we are very concerned of the risks to our RVU community due to this lack of cautiousness and lack of compliance to CRT and CDC recommendations. It was also noticed that many are not washing or sanitizing your hands as thoroughly or frequently enough while on campus, particularly during labs.     Updates and reminders for this week include:   Clinical Externship Rotations Jeopardy. Miller, Associate Dean of Clinical Education, reported that he recently had a phone meeting with several hospital leaders of our major training partners in our clinical network. In that meeting it was disclosed that many hospital […]

September 18, 2020 | COVID-19 Response Team Update Dear RVU Family, The only thing that appears to be certain these days is uncertainty. Many of us have children who returned to school, only to have schools revert to an all on-line curriculum. Some had children going to all on-line or a hybrid schedule, only to be advised that schools will soon be returning to in person learning soon. The Douglas County School District (DCSD), which is the school district our Colorado campus is located in, announced this week that its elementary schools are tentatively scheduled to return to full-time, in-person learning with a targeted return date of October 19th. We never know the extent of what our teammates and classmates are dealing with in their personal life. Let’s continue to give each other grace and demonstrate the RVU Core Value of Compassion. This week’s informational summary is as follows: Reminder that we are in Phase Blue and the CRT is monitoring the data on new cases and the overall trend of COVID-19. Unfortunately, as predicted, case counts have been increasing due to the opening of schools around the country. We are continually evaluating when it will be safe for us […]

September 11, 2020 | COVID-19 Response Team Update Dear RVU Family, Now that Labor Day is behind us and fall is upon us (actually feels like winter in Colorado), it’s time to remember that flu season is coming. Seasonal flu activity usually begins in October and typically peaks between December and February. The upcoming flu season, along with the pandemic, pose a double threat to our health and community. In an effort to concomitantly combat the flu, RVU is strongly encouraging students and employees to receive their flu vaccine. Both campuses will be offering flu vaccines this month. Please review the email from Tiffany Mahaso (CO) or Dr. Park (UT) sent on September 8. Other points of information to share this week includes: RVU has had 1 positive COVID-19 case on the CO campus this month, which was a preclinical student who became infected while traveling outside the state. Contact tracing and appropriate measures were taken to prevent any risk of on-campus spread. We are doing a good job of following guidelines while on campus! Let’s also do the same while we are off campus. The United States has dubbed the COVID19 vaccine development as ‘Operation Warp Speed’.    They are […]