Travis Nguyen/Photo Editor

After a year of inactivity, the McMaster Students Union Emergency First Response Team is running again

According to their Facebook page, the McMaster Students Union Emergency First Response Team is “a 24/7 service that provides confidential medical care to anyone in need on the McMaster University campus.” With approximately thirty volunteers working to provide emergency medical services, EFRT has been a fixture on campus since the 1980s.

EFRT is a group of undergraduate students who are trained to respond to a variety of medical emergencies. According to EFRT Program Director Ivy Quan, all EFRT volunteers have been trained as first responders and emeregency medical responders under the Red Cross. Some of the more senior members of EFRT have further medical training as well. 

During the 2020-2021 school year, EFRT was inactive due to COVID-19

“[EFRT wasn’t] really on call last year because campus was closed and everything moved online, so the responders weren't in Hamilton to run shifts,” explained Quan. 

According to Quan, EFRT dedicated its time over the course of the last year towards training a new batch of responders. This year, given that campus has reopened, EFRT is back on call. 

“We do have to put in a lot of steps to make sure that our responders as well as the patients that we see are safe [from COVID-19],” said Kiran Roy, EFRT's public relations coordinator. 

According to Roy, these safety steps involve mandatory personal protective equipment training for responders, mandatory masks for patients and bystanders — unless a mask would interfere with treatment for the patient — and two different rounds of COVID-19 screening questions. 

Roy and Quan both emphasized the importance of the role that EFRT plays on campus. 

“We know our way around campus because we're part of the university,” Roy explained. 

This allows EFRT to get to calls very quickly, making the response time faster for patients.

Along with the logistical benefits of calling EFRT, Roy and Quan both stressed the emotional benefits as well. 

“I think it probably creates a sense of ease amongst the patients that we meet because they know that we're just like them and we're also students. We understand what they're going through from a mental health point of view,” said Roy. 

“I think it probably creates a sense of ease amongst the patients that we meet because they know that we're just like them and we're also students. We understand what they're going through from a mental health point of view.”

Kiran Roy, EFRT Public Relations Coordinator

According to Quan, EFRT receives approximately 500 calls a year. While many of these calls are medical emergencies, their role on campus goes beyond this as well. 

“We also do a lot of calls to, [for example], first years, who are worried about something; we also are a mental health service,” explained Quan. 

“We may be an emergency response team, but if anyone is unsure about their health, [unsure about] their safety, even just a little bit not sure what's going on, they can always call us and we're happy to come,” said Roy. 

“We may be an emergency response team, but if anyone is unsure about their health, [unsure about] their safety, even just a little bit not sure what's going on, they can always call us and we're happy to come.”

Kiran Roy, EFRT Public Relations Coordinator

Applications to join EFRT will open in early October and the recruitment process will take place from October to January. 

Photo By Travis Nguyen / Photo Editor

“We're so excited to be back on call,” Quan said.

As EFRT responders welcome a year of getting back into action, McMaster students can also look forward to seeing the team all around campus once again.

Photo from Silhouette Photo Archives

Canada is currently plagued by an opioid crisis. Opioids such as fentanyl are drugs that are commonly used to relieve pain. These drugs, however, can be extremely addictive and their misuse has led to thousands of overdoses and deaths.

In 2017, 88 Hamilton residents died from opioid overdoses. So far into this year, Hamilton Paramedic Services has already responded to 161 incidents of suspected opioid overdoses. In comparison to other cities within the province, Hamilton has the highest opioid-related death rate.

While there is no publicly available data on the demographics of opioid use in Hamilton, in general, young adults aged 18 to 25 are the most vulnerable to opioid misuse. As the rate of opioid misuse increases annually, it is imperative that students are aware of the availability of naloxone.

Naloxone is a fast-acting drug that temporarily reverses the effects of opioid overdoses until medical emergency services can arrive. As of March 2019, Public Health and the Naloxone Expansion Sites in Hamilton have distributed 2496 doses of naloxone, with 285 people reported as being revived by the drug.  

McMaster University’s student-led Emergency First Response Team and McMaster University security officers carry and are trained to use naloxone nasal kits in case of emergency situations. While Mac’s security officers only recently began to carry the kits, EFRT responders have been carrying them since August 2017.

Fortunately, EFRT has not had to use any of their kits since they began carrying them. While this may imply that opioid-related overdoses have not occurred on campus, this does not guarantee that students are not at risk at opioid misuse.

As EFRT responders and McMaster security cannot always be available to respond to students’ needs off-campus, students should be more aware of their ability to carry and be trained to use naloxone kits.

While the Student Wellness Centre does not carry the free naloxone kit, the McMaster University Centre Pharmasave located within the McMaster University Student Centre does, in addition to the Shoppers Drug Mart pharmacies located near campus. To obtain a kit, all students must do is show their Ontario health card.

The fact that this life-saving drug is so readily available to students on and near campus is amazing. It is disappointing then that the university hasn’t done a sufficient job in advertising this information to students.

Students should be given naloxone kits and mandatory opioid information and response training at the beginning of the academic term. At the very least, this information can be distributed during Welcome Week along with other orientation events.

The opioid crisis is one that affects us all, especially here in Hamilton. McMaster University should help fight this crisis by ensuring that their students are equipped with the knowledge to recognize an opioid overdose and have the necessary tools to help reverse them.

 

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Photo by Aaron de Jesus

By: Elliot Fung

In January 2019, McMaster Security Services announced an update to their mobile safety app, allowing students to receive safety alert notifications and information about campus safety resources.

The app, which was developed in partnership with both McMaster and the McMaster Students Union, provides a centralised location for contact information for a multitude of emergency and non-emergency safety services.

In 2013, McMaster Security Services released an application that included the capacity to easily contact emergency services, the MSU Emergency First Response Team and request the MSU Student Walk Home Attendant Team.

In addition, users could access transit information, the university’s emergency protocols and live alerts.

The 2019 update includes many of the previous features and adds new ones.

However, the new app has omitted information about EFRT and transit.

Among the app’s new noteworthy features includes a “Friend Walk” option that allows students to watch their friends as they travel home.

Friend Walk allows a user to send their real-time location to a friend. The user picks a friend to send their location to via SMS or email and then initiates a walk and chooses a destination.

If the user is under duress, they have to option to notify their friend and start an emergency call. If either the user or the friend disconnects from the walk, an option to contact emergency services will appear on the screen.

According to a McMaster Daily News article about the app update, “Friend Walk” serves to enhance the on-campus SWHAT service, which provides students with the ability to walk to a destination with the company of two attendants.

Another notable feature of the app is a crime map.

The map displays the location and dates of recent crimes in Hamilton and the area surrounding McMaster.

Crimes displayed include categories like auto-theft, car burglary and residential burglary.

The app also features a section about student support services, where users can access information about various student supports on-campus including the McMaster Equity and Inclusion Office, sexual violence support, and McMaster Wellness Centre.

Users can also email facility services to report an issue.

However, according to the “On-Campus Infrastructure Policy Paper” passed by the MSU Student Representative Assembly in Nov. 2018, the process of submitting a work order for a repair of infrastructure is still meticulous and unavailable to off-campus students.

The safety app is an improvement to the outdated safety app that was implemented in 2013.

The McMaster Security Services website characterizes the app as a ‘must have’ that contains valuable features and information.

However, it appears the app may not do a great deal to improve students’ experiences.

During the 2017-2018 academic year, the MSU proposed a variety of suggestions for increasing student safety on and off campus and improving the university’s response via the university’s sexual violence prevention and response policy.

As it stands, the university has yet to implement these recommendations and make improvements to these resources.

Among the recommendations relating to infrastructure in the policy paper were increasing the number of red assistance phones and improving lighting on campus and in the surrounding housing areas.

The newly updated safety app does not ensure these larger recommendations are implemented, only consolidating information that is already available online.

In addition, while students can use the app to access information about sexual violence support at McMaster, they also cannot do much beyond that to improve their experience and safety.

More information about the safety app can be found at https://security.mcmaster.ca/crime_prevention_safetyapp.html.

 

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Photo by Madeline Neumann

By Balsam Fasih

Changing standards of care are pushing the McMaster Students’ Union Emergency First Response Team to adopt Quality CPR, a training device that gives trainees feedback on the quality of their chest compressions.

While it is not part of traditional CPR training courses, Q-CPR is quickly becoming part of changing standards of care for cardiac arrest patients, now being used by Hamilton’s Emergency Medical Systems.

Currently, EFRT uses mannequins that give trainees a limited amount of feedback in first-aid courses. However, in the near future, EFRT program director Samantha Aung plans to purchase a Q-CPR mannequin to be used for training as well.

In particular, Aung plans to acquire an AED attachment that provides real-time feedback on CPR quality for use in the field. This would not require a dramatic change in protocols, but the team’s medical director will help ensure the new protocols are up to standards.

“When a major emergency such as a cardiac arrest occurs, you want those who are attending to it to be well-trained and be using the best tools to provide the best outcomes,” said Aung. “In a busy place such as Hamilton, where the local EMS system can sometimes be stretched, we want to make sure our team has the ability to care for a patient as best as possible until further care arrives and to us, that means the implementation of Q-CPR.”

CPR quality has been shown to have a significant impact on patient survival rates. For instance, a 2012 study published in the journal Critical Care Medicine found that when chest compressions are performed at a depth that is less than 38 millimeters, survival rates for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest are 30 per cent lower.

Another study published in the journal Circulation in 2005 found that when chest compressions are performed too slowly, it is less likely that spontaneous circulation will return for in-hospital cardiac arrest cases.

According to Aung, EFRT has been seeking Q-CPR for a few years now. The changing guidelines have accelerated the movement to adopt Q-CPR. If financial approval is obtained, EFRT will begin using Q-CPR within the next year.

“Q-CPR is becoming a part of the standard at which people should be trained,” Aung said. “We are trying to meet those standards, thus wanting to get Q-CPR.”

Overall, Q-CPR works to improve the quality of CPR. With the addition of Q-CPR to the EFRT toolkit, responders should be increasingly well-trained and equipped to provide CPR in the event of an emergency.

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Opioid abuse has become a more pressing problem in Hamilton than anywhere else in Ontario. In Aug. 2017 alone, 26 overdose calls were made to 911. Despite these statistics, Hamilton police officers have been barred from administering naloxone, a life-saving anti-opioid drug that counteracts the effects of opioids in the event of an overdose.

The McMaster Students Union, however, has embraced naloxone. In the wake of the opioid crisis gripping Hamilton and campuses across Canada, the MSU Emergency First Response Team has stocked up on the opioid treatment.

On Aug. 25, EFRT was trained to administer naloxone injections to prepare for potential overdoses during Welcome Week.

“Naloxone is a drug that isn’t incredibly dangerous if you’re injected with it when you’re not in an opioid overdose situation, and that’s another reason why our medical director said it would be beneficial to have,” said Samantha Aung, EFRT program director.

On Sept. 15, EFRT obtained the nasal spray version of naloxone. In the event of an overdose, EFRT may administer two nasal spray doses in addition to four injections. EFRT may therefore administer four more doses than the average bystander equipped with a naloxone kit from a pharamacy.

Joining a few other institutions, including Mount Allison University, the University of Alberta and the University of King’s College (Halifax), McMaster has become one of the first Canadian universities to carry naloxone.

At Dalhousie University and the University of British Columbia, students can seek out their own naloxone kit for free. When asked if McMaster should implement this initiative and do more to protect students from the growing opioid crisis, Dunavan Morris-Janzen, EFRT public relations coordinator, said he cannot directly comment on whether or not the university should have naloxone available to students for free pick-up.

EFRT may therefore administer four more doses than the average bystander equipped with a naloxone kit from a pharamacy.

“Students with an Ontario health card can acquire free naloxone kits and the necessary training to administer the drug from Shoppers Drug Mart located across Main Street West.”

Although several other Canadian universities and colleges are considering obtaining naloxone, some have opted not to carry it, primarily because of liability concerns or a lack of demand.

At the University of Ottawa, student leaders were barred from carrying naloxone kits during the university’s frosh week as a result of a liability issue that could emerge in the event of an improper injection.

“Obviously, [treatments with] needles always contain some sort of danger, but I think having the drug in general is a great thing because it does truly help people,” said Aung.

When asked if the University of Ottawa’s liability concern applies to McMaster, Aung stated that since naloxone injections are exclusively administered by EFRT, the university would not be held liable in the event of an improper injection.

“The concern at the University of Ottawa was that, as a civilian population using naloxone, there’s a chance that it’s less safe, and the university assumes that liability if student leaders are administering the drug,” she explained. “For EFRT, we were trained on how to use the needles a little more intensively than you would if you just picked up your own kit at the pharmacy. As well, because we have medical directive behind us, our medical director, in teaching us how to use the drug, assumes that we know how to properly administer it, and when we administer it, it is safe,” Aung said.

As the opioid crisis continues, both the McMaster and Hamilton community continue to develop strategies to combat overdoses and death.

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Your heart rate is racing, your blood pressure is through the roof, you can feel the adrenaline running through your... EpiPen?

Over reading week, members of McMaster’s Emergency First Response Team competed at the National Conference of Campus Emergency Responders. After a morning filled with informative lectures, a team of three members− Chris, Sachin, and myself− ran through 15 different simulations meant to represent medical emergencies that could be seen on campus.

Chris was able to regain a central pulse on an electric shock patient after 10 intense minutes of CPR. Sachin manually immobilized the cervical spine of a patient who fell down the stairs. I was able to catch a carbon monoxide leak that could have left all three responders unconscious. Along with these individual efforts, we competed as a team to tackle a mass casualty simulation. After all the marks were counted up the McMaster team came second overall out of 16 teams from other campuses in Canada.

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While the conference was fun and informative, going to competitions such as these is not our main objective. The main goal of this team is to respond to medical emergencies on the McMaster campus and serve the students, employees, faculty and visitors.

Over 30 volunteers are part of the Emergency First Response Team and provide 24-hour coverage seven days a week during the school year and 9-5 coverage five days a week during the summer months. We also teach a number of first aid courses throughout the year. All team members are certified as Emergency Medical Responders and more senior members are trained in International Trauma Life Support and Advanced Medical Life Support. We are trained to respond to a variety of calls including cardiac arrests, syncopal episodes, musculoskeletal injuries, allergic reactions and diabetic emergencies and have an average response time of 2-3 minutes.

If you ever find yourself in a situation where you need to contact EFRT there are a number of ways we can be reached. The direct number, 905-522-4135, or simply “88” from any campus landline puts you straight through to McMaster Security Services which dispatches us. We can also be called through the “MUSST” app or by pressing the emergency button on any red emergency pole on campus.

On March 24, we will pair up with SHEC to perform our annual Impaired Driving Simulation. At this event we will simulate how we respond to a call in front of University Hall in between classes every hour from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. We encourage you to come check out this action-packed simulation. If you ever have any questions about the team come by our office, MUSC 103, or contact efrtpr@msu.mcmaster.ca.

Mac students can feel safer this year thanks to the development of a new Security Services app.

It’s called the McMaster University Safety, Security and Transit app, or MUSST, and it’s available for free on iPhone, Android, and touchscreen Blackberry devices. The app provides contact numbers for emergency services and campus resources in addition to information about transportation and safety guidelines.

Upon loading the app, users are greeted by a conspicuous red button that lets them call either Campus Security or 911 with one touch. The front page also links to the McMaster Daily News twitter page and lets one call the Emergency First Response Team (EFRT) and the Student Walk Home Attendant Team (SWHAT), both run by the McMaster Students Union.

EFRT responds to campus medical emergencies and SWHAT will walk you home at night. In another tab, app users can find clinic and hospital locations and familiarize themselves with campus safety procedures.

In addition to these safety measures, MUSST seeks to help students out with transportation. It allows them to call two local taxi services and uses Google Maps to find HSR bus schedules. There are also links to the websites of other bus services, such as GO Bus and Greyhound, but those pages are not consistent in their design for mobile users and can be cumbersome to use on smartphones.

MUSST was developed by Weever Apps, which operates in McMaster Innovation Park, and is a collaborative effort between McMaster Security, Student Affairs, the MSU, and Public Relations. It was inspired by Queen’s University’s SeQure App.

First released in May, it was updated in August and was fully operational in time for the start of this school year. Staff Sergeant Cathy O’Donnell, a security manager at Mac, said that the university will be launching an extensive advertising campaign for the app.

MUSST can be downloaded for free on your touchscreen smartphone. In addition, students living in residence can find a QR code on the cover of their key card that downloads the app when scanned.

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