COVID-19 Resources
COVID-19 Vaccination
Trocaire desires to ensure the health and safety of all students, faculty, and staff whether in the classroom or when placed at an off-campus professional practice setting. As the COVID-19 pandemic moves from an emergent to a chronic phase, Trocaire has dropped the requirement that all students, faculty and staff receive COVID-19 vaccination in order to attend on-campus activities. The college continues to follow the CDC guidelines and strongly encourages all individuals to receive the initial COVID-19 vaccination and / or appropriate updated COVID-19 vaccinations as they become available.
Clinical Site Policies
For off-campus professional practice activities, commonly referred to as ‘clinicals’, the policies of the clinical site must be adhered to, even if they differ from that of the college. Agreements between Trocaire and the clinical site / agency address regulatory requirements, accreditation expectations, and other guidelines, and the sites have been approved as meeting specific educational and clinical regulations. These agreements include provisions requiring students to adhere to agency policies relevant to their clinical experiences. As a result, to participate at the site students and faculty must meet all clinical site compliance requirements, including site- or agency-specific vaccination / immunization requirements.
Trocaire students who elect not to get vaccinated against COVID-19 may be unable to start or to continue their clinical placement if their placement sites require such vaccination. If the site does not require the vaccine, you are not required by Trocaire to obtain the COVID vaccine. However, if the site or agency changes their requirements to mandate the COVID vaccine, students must comply. In such cases, Trocaire will not be held responsible to find a new clinical placement site for any student due to lack of adherence by the student to site-specific COVID vaccine requirements.
COVID-19 Exemptions and Clinical Sites
Trocaire does not have the authority to grant COVID-19 vaccination exemptions for off-campus clinical sites. Each clinical partner will determine its own process for accepting requests for exemptions. The length of time the entity takes to make a determination about your request should be taken into account, as it may cause a delay in the start of your clinical rotation.
Further, there is no guarantee that a request for exemption will be granted by a clinical partner. If the assigned clinical site will not accept the student’s request for exemption, Trocaire College is not responsible for finding the student an alternate site. Thus, this may jeopardize a student’s ability to progress in their program.
Disclaimer
Trocaire reserves the right to adjust the college’s health and safety requirements at any time and will communicate any material changes in our policies to the affected individuals. The College reserves the right to make such changes as it determines, in its sole discretion, to be necessary or advisable in its regulations, policies and practices. Changes to rules and policies may occur at any time and could be applied to currently matriculated students as well as those seeking admission or those who have been admitted but have not started to attend the college.
We believe in the efficacy of the COVID -19 vaccinations and recommend that all faculty, staff and students be immunized.
The following information concerning COVID-19 and college protocols is current and provides guidance for those experiencing possible symptoms of COVID-19, those who have tested positive for COVID-19, or those who have been exposed to COVID-19.
What Should You Do if You Have Symptoms of COVID-19?
If you have symptoms that might be COVID-19, please follow the steps below.
(If you are unsure of which symptoms might be COVID-19, please refer to this web site: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/symptoms-testing/symptoms.html)
- Isolate yourself from others, stay at home.
- Wear a mask when around others.
- Get tested for COVID-19.
What is Isolation?
Isolation refers to staying at home, staying away from others during periods that you may be infectious with COVID-19.
- Isolate from others if
- You are sick and suspect you have COVID-19.
- If you test positive for COVID-19.
- End Isolation:
- If you have symptoms and they are improving or you are fever free for 24 hours without medication, end isolation after 5 full days past the date of onset. If symptoms are not improving, continue to isolate.
- If no symptoms, end after 5 full days past the date of onset.
- Counting days: Date of onset (symptoms or positive test) = Day 0
- Isolate from Day 0 through and including Days 1 to 5.
- Return to class or work – on Day 6.
- Example: Date of onset = 9/22; end isolation on 9/28.
What is Testing for COVID?
Testing refers to obtaining a medical diagnostic test to determine if you have active COVID-19 Disease.
Types of Tests
- Nucleic acid amplification tests (NAATs).
- NAATs, such as PCR-based tests, are most often performed in a laboratory. They are typically the most reliable tests for people with or without symptoms. These tests detect viral genetic material, which may stay in your body for up to 90 days after you test positive. Therefore, you should not use a NAAT if you have tested positive in the last 90 days.
- Antigen, such as many home rapid tests
- Antigen tests are rapid tests which produce results in 15-30 minutes. They are less reliable than NAATs, especially for people who do not have symptoms. A single, negative antigen test result does not rule out infection. To best detect infection, a negative antigen test should be repeated at least 48 hours apart (known as serial testing). Sometimes a follow-up NAAT may be recommended to confirm an antigen test result.
Interpreting Test Results
- Positive: Any positive test (PCR or Antigen) means virus was detected and you have an infection.
- Isolate as noted above
- Negative: NAAT. If PCR (NAAT) test is negative, this means the test did not detect the virus, but this doesn’t rule out that you could have an infection
- If you do not have symptoms and you have not been exposed to the virus that causes COVID-19, you may return to normal activities.
- If you have symptoms, you may have COVID-19, but tested before the virus was detectable, or you may have another illness. Seek healthcare provider for follow-up as appropriate.
- Negative: Antigen. If Antigen (rapid) test is negative, you should test again since Antigen tests have known ‘false negative’ rates.’
- If you have symptoms, and test negative on the first antigen test, you should continue to isolate and test again 48 hours after the first negative test.
COVID-Related Absence
- Students who are ill with, have symptoms of, or have tested positive for COVID-19 will need to isolate and stay out of class and clinicals. Such absences will be excused though all work must be made up. To ensure that students are provided with an excused absence, students should be in touch with Dr. Richard Linn (contact information below) and their faculty members and will need to provide documentation of their illness or test results.
- Employees who are ill with, have symptoms of, or have tested positive for COVID-19 will need to isolate and stay out of work. The college provides COVID-19 sick days for qualified employees which must be reported but, up to a limit, are not charged against the employee’s normal allotment of VSP time. Employees staying out of work due to COVID-19 related illness should be in touch with Dr. Richard Linn and their immediate supervisor and will need to provide documentation of their illness or test results.
Reporting COVID-Related Absence
- All employees and students should report COVID-19 illness to:
- Dr. Richard Linn; linnr@trocaire.edu
and
- Students – report to their program director and faculty
- Employees – report to their immediate supervisor
2021 Communications
August 27: Welcome to the Fall 2021 semester! Covid19 Vaccination Reminder
August 23: Urgent Message: Covid19 Vaccination Compliance
July 14: Next Steps Regarding Mandatory COVID-19 Vaccination Policy
July 12: Important Vaccine Policy Information for Fall 2021
Feb. 12: Fall 2021 Update
Jan. 8: Notice: COVID-19 Vaccine Availability and Call for Volunteers to Administer Vaccine
2020 Communications
Nov. 18: Orange Zone Update: Classes Continue as Planned
Nov. 17: Important Details about Remainder of Fall 2020 Semester
Oct. 6: A Message from Trocaire President Dr. Bassam Deeb
Oct. 5: Spring 2021 Update
Sept. 4: Reminder: Fall 2020 Academic Calendar
Aug. 27: Please sign the Trocaire Trust Community Pledge
Aug. 13: COVID-19 Pandemic Behavior and the Fall 2020 Semester
Aug. 4: Fall 2020 Student Affairs Update
July 27: Fall 2020 Course Schedule Update
July 16: Fall 2020 Academic Affairs Update
July 2: Trocaire College Fall 2020 General Update