Fuelling health care
Through collaboration, training and applied research, Sheridan is fuelling a pipeline of highly qualified health-care professionals to provide interprofessional, culturally competent care to our communities, and contributing to post-pandemic recovery.
A true community effort: Sheridan’s CommUNITY vaccination clinic
Over the past year, Sheridan was proud to play a part in the largest vaccination effort in Canadian history through the CommUNITY vaccination clinic at our Davis Campus in Brampton.
The initiative began early on when the Peel Region reached out to Sheridan to explore options for clinics. Peel was severely impacted by COVID-19, at one point facing a positivity rate nearly three times higher than Ontario as a whole.
Sheridan was eager to help. Fuelled by a collaboration between Sheridan, the Region of Peel, Indus Community Services, Punjabi Community Health Services, the Latin-American COVID-19 Task Force and the Government of Ontario, Sheridan’s CommUNITY clinic worked to reach under-vaccinated communities in Brampton — an area home to many essential workers, uninsured and undocumented individuals, vulnerable and marginalized persons and international students.
The clinic’s partners mobilized a local, culturally-specific communications effort, reaching community members through social media, flyers and phone calls. Volunteers knocked on doors, went to local plazas, gas stations, places of worship and neighbourhoods to educate people on vaccines and help book appointments.
The CommUNITY clinic’s overwhelming success enabled organizers to extend its operations several times in 2021. The percentage of 18-29-year-olds in L6Y – the targeted postal code – who had received their first dose hovered around 100 per cent on the last day of the clinic’s first run.
Dr. Lawrence Loh, Medical Officer of Health, Region of Peel Public Health, gave credit for that achievement to Sheridan and all the CommUNITY clinic partners for the significant progress made through the clinic, and everyone’s work to ensure marginalized and vulnerable groups in the Peel community weren’t left behind.
Sheridan rejoined forces with its community partners in February 2022 to launch a second clinic, further boosting the Peel Region’s vaccination efforts.
By the numbers: Sheridan’s first-dose CommUNITY vaccination clinic
community partners.
Sheridan staff and volunteers from partnering organizations helped provide non-clinical support on site.
days welcoming individuals who lived, worked or studied in the Region of Peel to the CommUNITY clinic.
beloved mascot - Bruno - provided a warm welcome for individuals entering the clinic.
vaccines were administered as part of Sheridan's COVID-19 CommUNITY vaccine clinic.
Stepping up to help our community pandemic response
In the past year, students of Sheridan's Pharmacy Technician program worked with a vaccine clinic held by Trillium Health Partners and University of Toronto Mississauga to reconstitute over 2,000 vaccines a day.
Several of the graduates are now working in paid positions at THP.
“It was an amazing opportunity to have as a student, because you really felt like you were making a difference. You look outside and see the queues of people coming (into the clinic), and you’re so thankful to be helping. It’s humbling.”
— Hamad Kakazai, a participating student.
On the front lines: Drawing on our strengths in Practical Nursing
In response to the demand for personal support workers in acute care in hospitals, long-term care and community care, Sheridan ramped up the number of new students in its Personal Support Worker (PSW) program to 500 this past year, and increased enrolment in Practical Nursing in both the fall and winter semesters. Over the course of the pandemic, Sheridan’s Practical Nursing alumni have worked across a number of health-care settings in the Peel Region, including stroke units, surgical floors, obstetrics and long-term care.
Looking forward: Health care after COVID-19
While the pandemic has brought issues concerning our health-care systems to the fore, it’s imperative to look beyond its immediate stressors. Based on our expertise in preventative, upstream care, Sheridan is working on innovative health-care programming that eyes a more sustainable and vibrant future.
A virtual roundtable discussion coordinated by Sheridan brought together leading voices from Peel Region and across Ontario to discuss the state of health care in Brampton and potential solutions, including how to create a locally trained health-care workforce that meets the unique needs of the community across the spectrum of care, with more of a focus on equity. This discussion helped illustrate the challenges that Brampton residents are facing – and will continue to face – as they look to access care in the community.
Virtual reality simulations provide students with first-person experience caring for a patient in a hospital room — whether it’s reading detailed medical histories, checking vital signs, administering medication, following sanitization protocols or even comforting anxious family members. Participants dictate their choices and actions via hand-held clickers, and faculty can customize the software to use it as a teaching tool, to provide hands-on experience or for evaluative purposes.
United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals
Last year, Sheridan became Ontario’s first institution to sign the SDG Accord, the postsecondary sector’s collective international response to the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals . These 17 Global Goals were adopted by countries around the world in 2015 as a means to guide global action on the urgent social, economic and environmental challenges facing our planet. Which goals do the stories on this page advance? See below.
