Faculty Pitch in for Provider Protection Effort

For most health care providers, staying at home during the COVID-19 pandemic is simply not an option.

Staying healthy while they care for the sick means having personal protective equipment up to the task — gloves, masks, and face shields.

Unfortunately, the widespread nature of the disease means that equipment is in short supply nationwide. But locally, Rockhurst University faculty have been working to pitch in where they can.

After hearing about the ongoing shortages of personal protective equipment, Katherine Hampshire, lecturer and lab manager for the Rockhurst chemistry department, decided to tap into a resource — the laboratories in the Ignatius Science Center, which sat empty of students, but with valuable supplies for those who, from talking with those she knew, were in desperate need of help.

“I have friends who are nurses and physical therapists that are treating COVID-19 patients who have said they have to ration and recycle personal protective equipment and that their stockpile of medical supplies is outmatched by the spread of COVID-19,” she said.

Working with Jason Riordan, ’05, associate vice president of facilities operations, Hampshire gathered and donated 5,000 nitrile gloves from the Rockhurst chemistry and anatomy labs to Truman Medical Center after hearing from an emergency room nurse from the facility on a Facebook group. She said she hoped the donation would help keep health care workers at that local hospital safe.

Lisa Felzien, Ph.D., professor of biology, said University student Kaley Marcinski, who is currently working at Saint Luke’s on the Plaza in Kansas City, reached out to her about any PPE equipment that the University might be able to give to staff at St. Luke’s. Aaron Bossert, lecturer and lab manager for the biology department, scoured the biology labs on campus to find spare N95 masks, face shields, sterile gloves, and sterile swabs, dropping them off along with a few dozen goggles at the hospital’s emergency department.

For another faculty member, meeting the needs of those on the front lines of COVID-19 care in Kansas City meant finding a way to make new equipment. Mandi Sonnenberg, Ed.D., associate professor of education and executive director of the STEAM Studio, had applied for and received a grant that in part funded the purchase of a 3D printer. In the past, that printer had been enlisted to build a custom prosthetic arm for a local child and is used in STEAM Studio student projects since. As Sonnenberg started receiving requests from a number of different people about how STEAM Studio might be able to help, she said she decided to put the technology to work. Getting the system set up was a team effort, she said — she thanked security and facilities staff at Rockhurst for helping get the 3D printer itself moved from campus to her home. STEAM Studio and Rockhurst High School alumnus Krishon Harris helped edit the open source plans for a resin cast mask that is designed to be washable and reusable (with the addition of a disposable filter) as well as comfortable.

Capable of creating two masks per day, Sonnenberg said a number have already come out of the machine and been sent sent to health care workers working on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“You start thinking about how we can help, even in a small way,” she said. “And I think that’s just the Rockhurst mission, and what we like to do with the STEAM Studio with the design thinking process.”

While she’s keeping the team producing the masks small — Harris, herself and her son Tommy — in keeping with social distancing guidelines, Sonnenberg said those interested in helping the effort can visit the STEAM Studio website or Facebook page to learn how.