Students seeking after-hours healthcare will likely have access to a new clinic as of July 2009.
Located in the Health, Counselling and Disability Services building at 146 Stuart St., the After-Hours clinic will provide health services to Queen’s students on Monday and Wednesday evenings from 5:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. and Saturdays from 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.
Eveline Traxler, Nurs ’08, proposed the idea and is one of the After-hours clinic’s organizers. In an e-mail to the Journal, Traxler said as well as hiring health care professionals, the clinic will employ nursing students as volunteers.
“The clinic will be staffed at all times by one physician, one ed Nurse, one of the four student directors, two senior-level medicine students, two senior-level nursing students and two students providing istrative assistance.”
The nursing and medical students will be performing tasks from a set list of skills appropriate to their year level.
“Essentially, they’ll be performing clinical skills that are within their designated scopes of practice,” she said. “A nursing student in third year has already learned how to give intramuscular and subcutaneous injections.”
The clinic will address the same issues HCDS deals with, such as sexual health issues, prescription refills and referrals.
Traxler said the clinic would reduce students’ wait times for medical appointments.
“We anticipate that by increasing the number of appointments available per week, students will be able to make appointments with a shorter wait time than is currently experienced,” she said. Additionally, we anticipate that the clinic will take pressure off of the already operating Urgent Care Clinic during the day, allowing more students the opportunity to take advantage of that service.”
Traxler said the After-Hours clinic will be on the fall referendum in order to establish a mandatory fee of $3.75 to fund the service.
“This fee will go primarily towards payment of the nursing staff, but will also cover the costs of clinical and istrative supplies, payment of the salaried student directors, and a portion of the clinic facilitator’s salary, a member of HCDS permanent staff.
“HCDS will be ing the clinic in non-monetary ways, including providing us with a location out of which to operate, payment of hydro, water and heating bills, and istrative .” Nursing student volunteers will be hired based on an interview process istered by both Traxler and HCDS Director Mike Condra.
“Nursing students, medical students and students providing istrative assistance will be selected through an application and interview process conducted by the four student directors, but their level of clinical expertise will be considered,” Traxler said.
“Based on the quantity and quality of applications receive, we anticipate accepting between 18 and 24 nursing students, 18 to 24 medical students and 12 to 16 istrative s.”
Traxler said the clinic would most likely open even if the referendum question didn’t .
“At this point, it’s like 99 per cent sure.”
Condra told the Journal via e-mail the clinic will be a valuable service for students, as well as providing useful experience for nursing students.
“When Eveline outlined the idea to me and showed me the proposal that she had written, I saw this as a chance to explore this project as one way to expand services and at the same time develop an interesting service-learning opportunity for students.”
Condra said the operations of the After-Hours clinic will not infringe on HCDS’s regular operations.
“HCDS will continue to direct its resources to the regular operations of the department (urgent care, booked appointments, immunizations, etc.). Our staff will assist in reviewing this project and in ensuring that the resources described by Eveline are available.”
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