Interim Placements

Extensive medical knowledge and rigorous hands-on training and practice are required to master ACLS. Only qualified health care providers (eg physicians, paramedics, nurses, respiratory therapists, clinical pharmacists, physician assistants, nurse practitioners and other specially trained health care providers) can provide ACLS, as it requires the ability to manage the patient’s airway, initiate IV access, read and interpret electrocardiograms, and understand emergency pharmacology. Some health professionals, or even lay rescuers, may be trained in basic life support (BLS), especially cardiopulmonary resuscitation or CPR. When a sudden cardiac arrest occurs, immediate CPR is a vital link in the chain of survival. Another important link is early defibrillation, which has improved greatly with the widespread availability of AEDs. ACLS is an extension of BLS. It often starts with analysing patient’s heart rhythms with a manual defibrillator. In contrast to an AED in BLS, where the machine decides when and how to shock a patient, the ACLS team leader makes those decisions based on rhythms on the monitor and patient’s vital signs. The next steps in ACLS are insertion of intravenous (IV) lines and placement of various airway devices. Commonly used ACLS drugs, such as epinephrine, atropine[2] and amiodarone, are then administered. At this time, the ACLS personnel quickly search for possible causes of cardiac arrest (eg, a heart attack, drug overdose, or trauma). Based on their …

West Virginia University, Robert C. Byrd Health Sciences Center administration, faculty, staff and students comment on the move from a Department of Community Medicine, to the emerging School of Public Health (publichealth.hsc.wvu.edu). On January 19, 2011, the Robert C. Byrd Health Sciences Center’s Chancellor, Christopher Colenda, MD, MPH, announced that West Virginia University will establish a new School of Public Health. Aided by support from the Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation and the West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission, these plans are now well established. Five academic departments have formed to lead the pre-accreditation phase of development for the new School. On June 23, 2011, five interim department chairs and four planning committees, including about 50 faculty representatives from across the university, began to work on curriculum and organizational reform on the planning path to School status. An organizational chart can be seen here. The emerging School is building upon a strong foundation, the existing Department of Community Medicine and its allies. There is already a CEPH-accredited program with over 100 MPH students and more than 20 PhD students. Our students have achieved success in professional placements. There is a dynamic interdisciplinary research enterprise. The mission has always been to provide primary prevention, intervention, and public health research to West Virginia communities and beyond. Now, the scale and scope of …

Webcast from the Kitsap County Juvenile Courrt featuring a panel discussion about the Adoptions and Safe Families Act as it pertains to Washington Child Welfare Practice.