BUFFALO N.Y. (WIVB) – Trocaire College is getting ready to train the next round of frontline workers.
students will be heading back to campus in a few weeks.

“With a pandemic you have a number of things that happen in your life that could really cause you to kind of move off track and what we’re trying to do is make sure they stay on track and so they can graduate so they can enter the world of work,” Trocaire College President Bassam Deeb said.

When students walk into Trocaire College on August 31st, it’ll look a little different. There’s markings reminding people to keep their distance and to show which direction to walk in. In Trocaire’s library, they set up plexiglass at the counters here as another way to keep staff and students safe.

Deeb says because students are training to work in healthcare, constantly wearing a mask won’t be unusual.

“Given the nature of the programs that we offer and the students are in healthcare that they are not going to have some of the issues that maybe you’d find in other institutions,” he said. “You know the wearing of the facemasks is something that they would do as part of their professional life.”

Deeb says traditional lectures will be taught online, labs and clinicals will be done on-site, which could be at the college or at a local hospital. He says students will have to be prepared to follow different procedures depending on which healthcare facility they do their hand-on course work.

“Our students are going to essentially be living in two different worlds,” he said. “The requirements of higher education but also the requirement for the most part of healthcare.”

Students will also be screened periodically throughout the semester for signs of COVID-19, faculty and staff will be screened daily.

“We just need to make sure that the students feel safe when they’re here,” Deeb said.