Dr. Rose McCloskey, a nursing professor at UNB Saint John, is partnering with the Loch Lomond Villa on a research project to learn how to prevent the spread of illness in long-term care facilities. (Photo submitted by UNB)
A research project which aims to simulate the long-term care environment to better understand how COVID-19 spreads bring together UNB Saint John and the Loch Lomond Villa.
Rooms will be built which are identical to long-term care facilities in 3600 square feet of space provided by the Villa.
Nursing Professor Dr. Rose McCloskey said they will use mannequins in place of people.
“Two rooms, two residents in one room and we’re gonna have some technology built-in there so we can actually monitor and with mannequins, not with real residents,” Dr. McCloskey said.
Dr. McCloskey said technology will be added to the space including cameras to see how care staff and families interact with the residents.
“And then will be able to create a scenario similar to if there was an infectious outbreak or a presumptive case of COVID-19. We’ll be able to examine those very specific things that are happening in that space,” Dr. McCloskey said.
Dr. McCloskey will be joined in the lab by co-investigators Dr. Karen Furlong and Dr. Isdore Chola Shamputa.
The Loch Lomond Villa will also provide equipment and ongoing maintenance support which is considered essential to the project’s success.
“Our goal is to open the lab right away in the beginning of April and begin work right away so we’re hoping in the fall we’ll have some preliminary findings from our work,” McCloskey said.
The project, the only one in New Brunswick, is one of 79 funded by the Canada Foundation for Innovation’s COVID-19 Exceptional Opportunities Fund competition.
Funding is also coming from Post-Secondary Education Training and Labour, the New Brunswick Innovation Foundation, the New Brunswick Health Research Foundation and Bird Construction.
Led by Dr. Rose McCloskey, a new project, in part funded through the @InnovationCA's COVID-19 Exceptional Opportunities Fund, will give researchers a better understanding of how to prevent the spread of illness among long-term care residents.
Learn more ➡️ https://t.co/wez3Sb1Mgo pic.twitter.com/1lKslafNK6— UNB Saint John (@UNBSaintJohn) January 13, 2021
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