Northeastern Nursing Students Support Safe Reopening of City Hall Services

Special to the Journal

Revere City Hall resumed in-person operations last Monday, June 29 with the help of nursing students from Northeastern University. Revere’s Public Health Nurse, Carol Donovan, works with Northeastern each year to bring nursing students into Revere schools to help those students earn more public health experience. With closures due to COVID-19, Carol enlisted the help of those students to safely re-open various municipal services.

The students are stationed at City Hall, the American Legion building and the Recreation Center. They greet residents as they enter the building, complete a symptom check and ask about potential exposures within the past two weeks. Residents are asked to provide their names and phone numbers for the purpose of contact tracing.

“I knew I needed their help and that they wanted public health experience, so this was the perfect opportunity. They are a fantastic group of students, and we are so grateful for their flexibility and for their willingness to go above and beyond to help Revere,” Carol Donovan said. Beyond basic screening procedures, the student nurses created posters in English, Portuguese, and Spanish to better spread awareness about safety precautions.

Nursing student Jessica Marroquin added: “Our role is to educate residents and city employees to do their part in protecting themselves and the people around them. We do this by making sure we get the message out to as many visitors and employees as we can.”

As for the Parks and Recreation Department, the nursing students have provided the youth summer employees with training and tips for maintaining social distancing and best practices. They are working diligently to inform as many Revere residents as possible in order to slow then spread.

“Revere needs assistance in opening up safely, and we are here to do that. Carol Donovan has been instrumental in getting this done. It has been great for the nursing students to get out into the public and to hear firsthand the concerns that many residents currently have,” said Kathleen Tracy, RNC, DNP, clinical instructor for Northeastern.