Park Bench: From Roswell Park

Collectively, we've all had a quiet a year, but as more and more people become eligible for a COVID-19 vaccination, there is some hope on the horizon. And while there's still a long time to go before this pandemic is truly over, a lot of people have even made plans to travel soon, but can that be done safely? On today's show, we have Dr. Kathrine Mullin, Roswell Park's Director of Infection Control and Prevention, to provide some guidance on assessing risk for traveling with our families, and why after a year into a pandemic, a change of scenery could be considered essential for some.

We’re now three months into the year and it’s likely our well-intentioned New Year’s Resolutions are well in the rearview mirror. This includes the yearly goal of exercising more and getting in shape. But this year, like last year, there’s the additional obstacle of COVID-19, closing or restricting gyms and their ability to operate normally, and that’s on top of the stress of having to spend more time at home and isolating. “When you tell people they have to quarantine and self-isolate, that’s creates a stress in and of itself,” says Andy Ray, PT, PhD, a physical therapist who works with lung cancer patients on pre-operative exercise interventions to help reduce post-operative complications. “If you add more stress on top of that, of losing a job, of course that’s going to add more stress. Physical activity might not be the top priority in your life. Self-isolation creates a stressful situation which inevitably ends up in a more sedentary lifestyle.” That leads to a less healthy cycle of inactivity, which can make a person feel even more fatigued and sluggish, he says. “For people who work out regularly, it takes a lot of work to build up that endurance and strength,” Dr. Ray says. “You can lose that endurance and strength so quickly. For example, in a 55-year-old man who becomes bedridden or sedentary for four weeks, they can lose up to 20% of what they gain through a workout. That can happen within weeks. That creates another cycle of, I’m fatigued, I don’t want to do anything. It’s easier to lay around and do nothing than to get up and move around.” Dr. Ray offers some advice on how to get the heart pumping with a moderate level of exercise to break out of the cycle of sluggishness and get on the road to better health.

Some of the software systems that we are using to track time, manage benefits and order supplies are more than 20 years old – older than Facebook, Google and the iPhone. Some processes still require paper forms, but all of that will change when Workday goes live in a few months.Tom Furlani, PhD, Chief Information Officer, and Danielle Marzo, Human Resources Associate, discuss the ways that Workday will transform our workplace, streamlining tasks and creating a user-friendly experience for employees.

On today's show, we'll be talking about the group that loves to talk, the Roswell Park Toastmasters club. Patricia Bax and Tony Astran, will tell us more about the organization, and how having confidence in your communication skills is useful, regardless of your job responsibilities.

So, the first half of 2020 has been challenging to say the least. Everyone has had to make some adjustments to their lives to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic. Many of Roswell Park's non-essential staff are returning to campus for work, and while it's nice getting back into a routine, the return will hardly be business as usual. On today's show, we spoke with Dr. Jennifer Hydeman, an Assistant Professor of Oncology and psychologist at Roswell Park, who offers some tips on how we can hit the ground running when going back to work.

The Director of Environmental Services and Linens, Matthew Dauria, explains how the cleaning staff at Roswell Park has handled the cleaning demands at the hospital during the COVID-19 pandemic.

As a healthcare community charged with caring for people with compromised immune systems, a virus like COVID-19 raises a number of concerns for patients and staff alike. Dr. Jan Nowak, Clinical Chief of Molecular Pathology, wants to shed some light on how patients and employees are tested for the novel coronavirus at Roswell Park, how the test used here was selected, how quickly results are obtained and how patients and healthcare workers are being kept safe while waiting for the results.

COVID-19 did not arrive with a set of instructions. Healthcare professionals everywhere have had to quickly adopt new practices and improvise to solve problems they never faced before. Here Holly Gasiecki, BSN, RN, describes how the pandemic has impacted her day-to-day work as she cares for patients in Roswell Park’s Intensive Care Unit (ICU).

On the newest episode of Park Bench, we spoke with the Director of Infection Control and Prevention, Dr. Katherine Mullin, about what it's like being an infectious disease physician during a pandemic, what her team is doing to help keep our patients and staff safe, and what all employees can do to help.

Due to the COVID-10/novel Coronavirus outbreak, Roswell Park has had to make changes to our policies and procedures across many different aspects of our institute. We know that all these changes can be challenging, and, at times, difficult to keep up with. In order to help keep our nurses and staff well informed, we asked for your questions and concerns. On today's episode we have Roswell Park’s Chief Nursing Officer, and Vice President of Patient Care Services, Pam Giesie, and Jillianna Wasiura, who works in our Infection Prevention and Control department as a Infection Control Coordinator, to answer some of these questions.

You may have noticed that Roswellpark.org recently received an update, and today, we'll talk to UI Web Designer, Andrew Reed, and Online Marketing Specialist, Dan Cave, about what that process was like.

There is one topic that employees LOVE to talk about at Roswell Park, and that’s FOOD. In this episode, we are happy to have in studio Chris Dibble, Director of Nutrition and Food Services, and Bill McCoy, Food Service Manager. We have been kept in suspense for the past two months on a construction project in our Sunflower Café. We will ask them all about it, and find out what goes on behind the counter to provide our staff and patients with healthy, nutritious meals. In our question and answer segment, Dr. Johnson shares why it's important for employees to learn about the supportive services available to patients.

Walter "Wally" Redrick, is something of a hallway hero around Roswell Park as part of our Environmental Services team. He polishes the floors on a daily basis all over the campus, keeping things looking sparkling and new. We hear from Wally and Matt Dauria about the importance of having a positive attitude while keeping our hospital clean, and Dr. Johnson joins us again to share her favorite moments from Bald for Bucks.

Park Bench is the new podcast for employees of Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center. In our first episode, Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center's President and CEO, Dr. Candace Johnson, joins us to share what's new and exciting around Roswell Park.