UCC School of Nursing and Midwifery Annual Report 2020

Catherine McAuley School of Nursing and Midwifery, UCC

Contact Tracing during COVID-19 Pandemic

The College of Medicine and Health promptly responded to the COVID-19 national emergency recruiting volunteers from across the entire College with staff from every school involved in collaborating with the HSE, CUMH and government bodies to stem the spread of COVID-19 in Ireland. Professor Ivan Perry coordinated the UCC Contact Tracing Centre, along with Kathryn Neville, COMH Manager and Professor Eileen Savage, School of Nursing & Midwifery. The Team: Professor Ivan Perry coordinated the UCC Contact Tracing Centre, Kathryn Neville, COMH Manager Professor Eileen Savage, School of Nursing & Midwifery, Staff of School of Nursing & Midwifery, and Staff, COMH Staff of the Catherine McAuley School of Nursing & Midwifery, UCC helped tackle the spread of COVID-19 by phoning and systematically making their way through a national database in one of the Call Centres in UCC. References: https://www.ucc.ie/en/civic/covid19/supportingthe- publicservice/ https://www.irishtimes.com/news/health/coronavi- rus/coronavirus-ucc-transformed-in-contact-trac- ing-hub-1.4219195 https://www.ucc.ie/en/media/academic/medicine- andhealth/2019documents/newsletter/standard- newsletter/CoMHeNewsNo36_April2020.pdf

Staff of the Catherine McAuley School of Nursing & Midwifery, UCC were part of the national response to gather highly skilled staff and utilise campus spaces for a contact tracing centre as well as deliver essential technical resources, technologies, and expertise to support Ireland’s testing and contact tracing capabilities. The Boole basement at University College Cork (UCC), was converted into a Call Centre for contact tracing in a short period of time. Volunteers and UCC Academy staff, including staff from the School of Nursing & Midwifery helped tackle the spread of COVID-19 by phoning and systematically making their way through a national database. UCC was one of several HSE contact tracing centres around the country. The contact tracing centre was set up to look and operate like a call centre, while adhering to social distancing. Rooms facilitated up to 10 volunteers at a time undertaking contact tracing.

Left: Staff at the School of Nursing and Midwifery

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