Safety top priority as RCSI opens doors for new academic year

TDT | Manama

The Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland – Medical University of Bahrain (RCSI Bahrain) said it took extra health and safety measures to ensure a safer educational environment for students and staff members in the new academic year. The changes are in line with Government guidelines for reopening educational institutions under the COVID-19 pandemic.

To familiarise, RCSI Bahrain said it created a mandatory online induction required before entering its campus. RCSI Bahrain said it closely manages and monitors the entry and attendance of students, staff, and visitors to its campus to limit the total number of individuals on campus at any one time, and facilitate contact tracing if the need arises.

On-Campus, instructional signages are installed to guide and remind students about the precautions and steps to follow. Besides, a one-way movement system across campus and on staircases are in place to limit contact, with specific designated entrances and exits. Furthermore, plexiglass protection for front desks will avoid direct physical interactions.

RCSI Bahrain has also increased the level and frequency of general cleaning and sanitization on campus, by repeated cleaning of touched surfaces, such as door handles, light switches, handrails and lift buttons. There is now an increased number of hand sanitizers across campus, hand-free/foot-operated devices for the doors, and restricted the usage of lifts to two persons only.

RCSI Bahrain is providing students with six reusable face masks which they will receive at the campus’ main gate for using while on campus. A color-coding table is also in place for students to wear a specific colored mask on specific days, which allows time for cleaning the masks.

Besides, the capacity and seating of all teaching spaces such as lecture theatres, tutorial rooms, labs, and clinical simulations spaces, have been calculated and adjusted in line with social distancing recommendations.

Students and staff members will be provided with PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) for their clinical training, whether on campus or in the hospitals. In the case, a student, staff member, or visitor exhibits COVID-19 symptoms, an isolation room, and a protocol is in place to ensure that the infected individual receives required assistance while maintaining safety.