Tuesday Tea With Dr. B (Feat. School Of Nursing Director And Professor Michael Williams)

[MUSIC PLAYING] Hi, I’m Jeff Bernstein and I’m in the Political Science department at Eastern Michigan University. I’ve been on the faculty here since 1997. I teach classes in American politics, campaigns and elections, public opinion, research methods, things like that. And I just have enjoyed my 23 years at Eastern.

It’s where I’ve spent my entire career and I love nothing more about the school than the students I get to teach and to work with on a daily basis. And this is my show Tuesday Tea with Dr. B where I’m inviting friends of mine from campus to common. Talk a little bit about what they do, a little bit about what they’ve been doing to get ready for this semester, and how we’re going to make it a really great semester for all of you. There is, as you know more than anybody, so much uncertainty going on and everything about life.

And at the university level– I know Michael– my guest today Michael Williams– has been involved in that. At the university level, we’re really trying as hard as we can to maximize safety but also try to give people the best college experience we can this year. So, if you have any questions or if you just want to talk about Eastern or what your time at Eastern could look like, please feel free to send me a note. I’d be happy to talk to you about the school.

My email address is on the screen. And with no further ado, let me get started with today’s show and introduce my guest, Michael Williams who is the director of the School of Nursing at Eastern Michigan University. Michael it’s great to have you with us today. It’s great to be here.

Michael, tell us. On a daily basis, what does the director of a School of Nursing do at Eastern? So, I will say, and I should say when Eastern started in 1997, I started in 1998. So, the year after, assistant associate professor and then became the director of the School of Nursing. Most of my time is spent really doing administrative work.

So, scheduling classes, making sure faculty have the resources they need, trying to maintain our budget at a reasonable rate. Scheduling classes, and responding to a lot of requests. And one of them is the request from all the clinical agents. The agencies that we work with.

I always tell my boss, you know, can we just build our own hospital. My job will be a lot easier if we have our own hospital. Well, I don’t know that that’s necessarily in the cards. But in essence, you’ve gotten to apply your health knowledge and your nursing knowledge in a different way in the last few months.

Because I know you have served as a very active member of the public health committee and, sort of, working on safe returns to campus and all of that. Talk about some of that work that you’ve done. Yes. So, I should say before my original degree was actually as a clinical lab scientist and then I became a nurse.

I had a very specific interest on this from the, kind of, infectious diseases process and the nursing process. I also still work as a nurse in an intensive care unit. So, I actually have been taking care of COVID patients. So, for a lot of reasons, I was excited to be asked to work on the crew.

What we basically did is that the group was a great group of people. We divide to work out. But we really looked out what does the science say, what does the evidence say about how we can move forward safely. And I remind people that science doesn’t happen overnight, that it’s many years in the development.

So, one of our biggest challenges right now is the science is evolving rapidly. And what we know today and what we know next week and the following week will change. Again, that’s frightening with us. But, you know, we pretty much know about measles and chickenpox and things like that because we have years of experience with it.

But we basically looked at the best science, the best evidence, and said these are the recommendations we believe will need to happen to return safely to campus for all of us and keep everyone safe. So, let me ask you this. If you could wave a magic wand and have one big question about COVID-19 answered to, kind of, help us move along. What’s the thing that you most would like to know at this point? That’s so hard.

And again, I think from my perspective as an intensive care nurse, my magic wand would be what’s the best treatment for it. I think as a director of the school of nursing at a public university, I think what’s the best strategy to really prevent the spread. So, I, kind of, have two perspectives on that. Are we getting better at treating it? [INTERPOSING VOICES] I think we are.

I think we are. I think that– and we’ve seen some remarkable recoveries on patients. Have been doing it all of the– you know, the zinc, the vitamin c, the Remdesivir, the convalescent plasma. You know, the supportive care of oxygen and stuff.

So, we’re seeing more people recover from it. And so, that’s right. And also I think people getting detected early, recognizing it, and recovering on their own early. Yeah.

It sounds like– I mean, and I, of course, am a political scientist, but from everything I read it just sounds like we literally– this thing did not exist two years ago and everything we are learning about it we’re– you don’t want to talk about learning from patients by trial and error, but we are probably learning by trial and error about how to treat it and how to prevent the spread of it. I remind people when I teach a research course that only 30% of what we know on health care is evidence based. So, about 70% we still need to learn about and figure out what’s the best way to approach it. So, unfortunately, I think in health care, most people believe we know we have all the answers.

We know the best practices, we know that. That’s not really true. But what we do have years of experience and, you know, we can translate some of our knowledge from one area to another quite well. So, some of the treatments regarding COVID infections and the pneumonia, we’ve been able to take what we know about adult respiratory distress and disseminated intravascular coagulation and all these other things and use them to treat it as we’re learning.

So, it’s not like we’re making it up as we go. We have some background behind it, but the specifics of it take time. So, what advice do you have for EMU students who are hoping to be coming to campus, hoping to be moving, taking classes. How do they manage to keep themselves healthy and safe in uncertain and scary times? So, truly the one most important thing everybody can do is wash your hands more often.

So, performing hand hygiene. I really prefer soap and water versus alcohol-based sanitizers. And the only reason is is that the virus and germs are washed off into the sewer system. And also the hand sanitizer is very drying.

So, it’s very easy that you can create problems with your skin and stuff with using a lot of hand sanitizer. So, really, I would say, wash your hands, do the physical distance that we recommend, always wear your mask, keep your crowds small. I think it is really, really important. Make sure you get adequate sleep and rest, and things like an appropriate diet.

But I think, you know, really handwashing is remarkable. There is a emeritus professor at Columbia University, Dr. Elaine Larson, and she’s studying handwashing for over 40 years. Her conclusion of all the different soaps and containers and all the different ways to do it was the most important thing is to do it. That’s great.

Simple advice but it– I mean, this may be how we get past this. It’s just everybody in this together, doing the right thing. Yes, I think so. So, want to do a few fun lightning round questions here? Sure.

All right. Let’s have some fun. Best lunch place near campus? I’ve talked that I love Korean. So, I guess that’s where I go.

Or Thai. Some Thai food. What’s your favorite movie? Oh, it’s always been the Wizard of Oz. Still is.

Really? Excellent. I remember watching that as a little kid and loving it. Would you rather wash the dishes or do the laundry? Wash the dishes. Favorite spot in Michigan? I guess, I just– I love being– I would say St. Ignace actually.

I love being by the Mackinac Bridge. What’s the best antibiotic? Great question to ask you. Great question. The one you never have to take.

And what is your favorite spot on EMU’s campus? Good question there too. I guess I just love looking out over– actually, I really enjoy being in the lake house and near the lake house. I just like looking at the water. It’s a nice spot on campus.

So, one more question here. In your opinion, what is it that makes EMU special? Without a doubt, the students. I had a discussion earlier with a potential clinical instructor and I said, I need to tell you, our students are special. They’re different.

They’re not the run of the mill student. They’re hardworking, they’re dedicated. They want to make a difference in their lives and they want to make a difference in other people’s lives. And my faculty tell that to all new faculty candidates every year.

Our students are different than any other you’ve had anywhere else. And I believe that. One of the things that I’ve seen is we’re dealing with this COVID thing is I think a lot of our students really intuitively get this sense that we have an obligation to each other. And I look at some of the other schools around the country where the students have not, shall we say, behave themselves.

And I think, you know, I’m not going to tell you that every Eastern student is behaving perfectly. But I think our students really do have this sense of obligation to their fellow citizens. I agree. Makes them– makes them very special.

Makes our school very special. Michael, I want to thank you for joining us today on Tuesday Tea with Dr. B. You’re welcome. Great having you here.

And so to all our students, prospective or incoming, good luck with the start of the semester and let’s make it a good one. Take care.

Source: Eastern Michigan University