{"id":4870,"date":"2020-07-02T08:17:30","date_gmt":"2020-07-02T12:17:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/healthsciences\/unc-pa\/?p=4870"},"modified":"2020-07-02T09:39:53","modified_gmt":"2020-07-02T13:39:53","slug":"second-year-physician-assistant-studies-student-jessica-thomas-volunteers-with-meals-on-wheels-in-response-to-covid-19-pandemic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/healthsciences\/unc-pa\/2020\/07\/second-year-physician-assistant-studies-student-jessica-thomas-volunteers-with-meals-on-wheels-in-response-to-covid-19-pandemic\/","title":{"rendered":"Second-Year Physician Assistant Studies Student Jessica Thomas Volunteers with Meals on Wheels in Response to COVID-19 Pandemic"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jessica Thomas is a second-year Physician Assistant Studies student whose desire to work with people as a health care professional spurred her to volunteer with Meals on Wheels of Durham<\/a> in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n

\"Jessica
Jessica Thomas<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Thomas, from Asheboro, North Carolina, said volunteers must follow several newer protocols, including wearing a mask and participating in contactless meal drop off, in order to best protect those receiving meal services from the virus.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have good interactions,\u201d Thomas said. \u201cWe exchange some words and get a chance to express gratitude. It\u2019s good for me, too, to see a happy face during these times.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thomas volunteered multiple times in April, alongside other PA students, when the virus paused student clinical rotations.<\/p>\n

While volunteering, Thomas said she realized how important a community can be for older adults, especially if they might be experiencing isolation.<\/p>\n

\u201cOlder adults might find it challenging to get food in a safe way,\u201d Thomas said. \u201cMeals on Wheels overcomes barriers of cost and transportation and adds the benefit of protection from exposure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thomas chose to volunteer with Meals on Wheels as a part of an elective medical management course. As a part of her second year of study, PA students must volunteer within the community.<\/p>\n

Paul Chelminski, the PA program director, said medical education at the UNC School of Medicine has always emphasized that care of patients and communities cannot limit itself to applying modern technological medicine.<\/p>\n

\u201cStudents and providers must never lose sight that meeting the basic needs of people is what allows good medical care to work,\u201d Chelminski said. \u201cThe UNC PA program practices this philosophy and is fortunate to have students like Jessica Thomas who instinctively embrace it.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Meals on Wheels America, the organization has seen a nationwide increase of nearly 25 percent of seniors requesting meals, and they have delivered more than 56 percent more meals per week since the pandemic began, despite a drop in volunteers.<\/p>\n

Thomas hopes to volunteer with Meal on Wheels after PA school.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had a really good experience,\u201d Thomas said. \u201cI can definitely see myself volunteering again once my program requirements are completed.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Physician Assistant Studies program is housed in the UNC School of Medicine Department of Allied Health Sciences. <\/em>Paul Chelminski (\u201995 MD, \u201903 MPH) has served as program director since its inception in 2015.<\/em><\/p>\n

–Lizzy Laufters, public relations and communications intern<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jessica Thomas is a second-year Physician Assistant Studies student whose desire to work with people as a health care professional spurred her to volunteer with Meals on Wheels of Durham in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Thomas, from Asheboro, North Carolina, said volunteers must follow several newer protocols, including wearing a mask and participating in … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":55977,"featured_media":4873,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"layout":"","cellInformation":"","apiCallInformation":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4870","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","odd"],"acf":[],"featured_image":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/healthsciences\/unc-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/482\/2020\/07\/Jessica-Thomas.jpg","featured_image_medium":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/healthsciences\/unc-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/482\/2020\/07\/Jessica-Thomas-214x300.jpg","featured_image_medium_large":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/healthsciences\/unc-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/482\/2020\/07\/Jessica-Thomas-768x1075.jpg","featured_image_large":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/healthsciences\/unc-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/482\/2020\/07\/Jessica-Thomas-731x1024.jpg","featured_image_thumbnail":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/healthsciences\/unc-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/482\/2020\/07\/Jessica-Thomas-150x150.jpg","featured_image_alt":"Jessica Thomas","category_details":[{"name":"News","link":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/healthsciences\/unc-pa\/category\/news\/"}],"tag_details":[],"_links_to":[],"_links_to_target":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/healthsciences\/unc-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4870","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/healthsciences\/unc-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/healthsciences\/unc-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/healthsciences\/unc-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/55977"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/healthsciences\/unc-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4870"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/healthsciences\/unc-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4870\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/healthsciences\/unc-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4873"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/healthsciences\/unc-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4870"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/healthsciences\/unc-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4870"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/healthsciences\/unc-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4870"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}