43
Medical Corps stands ready
By WILLIAM K. ALCORN
AUSTINTOWN
Mahoning/Columbiana Medical Reserve Corps members say they are ready to help hospitals and public-health departments cope with major emergencies, here and across the country.
Perhaps the area’s best-kept secret, the community- based volunteer MRC is composed primarily of active and retired health-care professionals — physicians, dentists, emergency medical technicians, registered and licensed practical nurses, physician assistants, social workers and veterinarians, as well as nonlicensed volunteers.
The Medical Reserve Corps also serves the community in nonemergency situations.
MRC volunteers worked side by side with Mahoning County District Board of Health staff during the 2009-10 campaign to vaccinate nearly 20,000 children and adults in Mahoning County for H1N1 (swine) flu, said Matthew Stefanak, county health commissioner.
“After losing staff in 2008 due to the recession, the county health department would not have been able to mount that kind of campaign without the help of the 36 MRC members who donated over 310 hours of service at the school clinics,” Stefanak said.
The corps has 192 registered volunteers — 57 in Columbiana County and 135 in Mahoning. Between 20 and 30 new volunteers joined in late 2009 and early 2010 during the H1N1 pandemic, the health commissioner said.
Among those volunteers are registered nurses Janet Reeves and Rebeccah Schaub, both of Canfield.
“Being retired, MRC is a way for me to continue to do some of the aspects of my profession and keep current with skills and procedures; and at the same time to do health care for the community,” Reeves said.
“It also helps keep me connected to my co-workers and others in the medical profession,” said Reeves, a member of District 3 Ohio Nurses Association.
Her husband, Dr. William Reeves, also a MRC volunteer.
Reeves turned to MRC after she attempted to find a medical-relief organization with which to deploy to help in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. She found out, however, that she lacked the necessary disaster training for immediate deployment.
During her career, the Chaney High School graduate worked as a nurse at Youngstown Hospital Association’s Southside Hospital, the Ohio Heart Institute affiliated with St. Elizabeth Health Center, and taught medical assisting in the adult program at the Mahoning County Career and Technical Center.
Schaub, a graduate of the University of Akron with a bachelor’s degree in nursing, worked eight years in hospitals in Columbus, Akron and Cleveland before retiring to raise her family. Her husband is Dr. Carl Schaub.
When her youngest daughter was in high school, Schaub, who has lived in the Youngstown area for 22 years, said she was looking for volunteer work when she received an invitation to a meeting of the Medical Reserve Corps.
“I went, and it sounded like something I’d like to be involved in,” she said. It’s great because I get to be with other health professionals and support the community. The patients are very grateful. It’s been a really good experience for me.”