HUP volunteers discuss OSHA precautions

College senior Keisha Dennar was deciding last week what precautions she needed to take when assisting a pregnant woman whose water was on the verge of breaking. Dennar and more than a dozen other Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania volunteers met at the Newman Center to discuss and role-play safety precautions at the first "AIDS Orientation Seminar." College senior Ari Wirtschafter, coordinated the seminar in order to teach volunteers about the risks of AIDS. Wirtschafter continually stressed the need for compassionate treatment of persons with AIDS and not to intimidate them by caring for them "in a spacesuit." Wirtschafter said that volunteers are often exposed to the same risks as regular health workers. But, federal government's Office of Safety and Health Administration only provides paid healthcare workers training of "universal" precautions -- a policy that mandates common safety rules which apply to all workers. Therefore, Wirtschafter said he felt that an awareness seminar for volunteers was needed to minimize their risk. The seminar began with an informative video discussing the transmitability of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, the precautions in patient treatment and the care of AIDS patients. It stated that AIDS may only be contracted if the Human Immunodeficiency Virus comes into direct contact with a person's blood or bodily fluids, and travels into the bloodstream. The video also emphasized utilization of proper techniques and protective clothing, including gloves, masks and gowns. The video explained how to appropriately handle bodily fluids, dispose of waste materials and disinfect contaminated surfaces. Repeatedly, it touted handwashing between procedures and patients as the best defense against communicable diseases. The video perpetually entreated its viewers to control their phobia of AIDS through knowledge of the disease and its communicability. It also advocated the importance of treating AIDS patients as humans and even recommended health workers to befriend a person with AIDS to overcome their fear. Afterwards, Wirtschafter established several role-playing situations which required audience participation to decide upon the proper protectionary measures of the health worker. After a brief question-and-answer session, he passed out quizzes and then distributed literature on the disease. "I was never warned before . . . it was always there and I wasn't as aware of it," said College junior Sherry Novick, who has volunteered at hospitals throughout the U.S. for the past five years and is presently a HUP emergency room volunteer. She said the program helped her to perceive the healthcare worker as a potential source of contamination to other patients. "You're aware that you're more of a threat to the patient then they are to you," Novick added. Mehul Shah, a senior at the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and Science praised the program's emphasis on the human aspect of the AIDS issue. "[It taught me] to treat the patient the way you want to be treated," Shah said.

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