Spring Break
Alcohol Safety Team offers weekend assistance
Perry Robbin
Issue date: 4/24/09 Section: News
The Alcohol Safety Team, a joint venture between the School of Nursing, ResLife, the Office of Alcohol and Drug Prevention and Student Health Services (SHS), will be returning for a fifth year this Spring Weekend.
Members of the team will be on duty from 11 p.m. to 4 a.m. on Friday and Saturday nights to assist students with injuries and alcohol-related problems. They will be wearing white T-shirts with red crosses on them for easy identification by Spring Weekend revelers.
The team, comprised of 85 nursing students, will work in concert with community assistants and EMTs to promote alcohol safety, according to a press release from the Alcohol Safety Team.
Team members will be on and off-campus at locations such as: SHS and Windham Hospital's Emergency Department. Members will also be at the Mansfield Fire Department's triage tents located by popular off-campus apartments.
Team members received clinical training from nursing faculty and SHS nurses. They also received personal safety management training from UConn police. The team members also have training in First Aid and CPR. To date, over 200 students have volunteered to be a part of the program.
Karyn Blanchard, a 6th-Semester nursing major, is one of the students serving on the team. She said the goal of the Alcohol Safety Team is to assess injuries and problems that students have, and point them toward the resources available to them.
Students will be given treatment on the spot, directed to a triage tent, or have EMTs called, depending on the severity of the issue.
If you need a band-aid, or if you are passed out drunk, the team can provide assistance, Blanchard said in regard to the team's mission and scope.
Blanchard said the team is a service-learning project for her public health class, which is concerned with getting involved with the community.
The team assists in figuring out where to send students with serious problems. This is because area emergency rooms face a large influx of patients during Spring Weekend, Blanchard said.
The participants receive course credit for their involvement, in addition to providing an invaluable public service, according to the team's press release.
The release also says that being a team member allows nursing students to gain clinical experience dealing with public health issues close to home.
"It allows college students to be part of the solution rather than the problem as it relates to high risk behavior involving alcohol," the release states.
Members of the team will be on duty from 11 p.m. to 4 a.m. on Friday and Saturday nights to assist students with injuries and alcohol-related problems. They will be wearing white T-shirts with red crosses on them for easy identification by Spring Weekend revelers.
The team, comprised of 85 nursing students, will work in concert with community assistants and EMTs to promote alcohol safety, according to a press release from the Alcohol Safety Team.
Team members will be on and off-campus at locations such as: SHS and Windham Hospital's Emergency Department. Members will also be at the Mansfield Fire Department's triage tents located by popular off-campus apartments.
Team members received clinical training from nursing faculty and SHS nurses. They also received personal safety management training from UConn police. The team members also have training in First Aid and CPR. To date, over 200 students have volunteered to be a part of the program.
Karyn Blanchard, a 6th-Semester nursing major, is one of the students serving on the team. She said the goal of the Alcohol Safety Team is to assess injuries and problems that students have, and point them toward the resources available to them.
Students will be given treatment on the spot, directed to a triage tent, or have EMTs called, depending on the severity of the issue.
If you need a band-aid, or if you are passed out drunk, the team can provide assistance, Blanchard said in regard to the team's mission and scope.
Blanchard said the team is a service-learning project for her public health class, which is concerned with getting involved with the community.
The team assists in figuring out where to send students with serious problems. This is because area emergency rooms face a large influx of patients during Spring Weekend, Blanchard said.
The participants receive course credit for their involvement, in addition to providing an invaluable public service, according to the team's press release.
The release also says that being a team member allows nursing students to gain clinical experience dealing with public health issues close to home.
"It allows college students to be part of the solution rather than the problem as it relates to high risk behavior involving alcohol," the release states.
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