Working to Level the Playing Field: COVID-19 and Health Care Inequities

Fall 2020 Dominican Magazine



Faculty and alumni are addressing social inequities in a time of crisis Dominican University is one of only 26 higher education institutions across the country to be selected by the Association of American Colleges and Universities to participate in the Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation (TRHT) project, a comprehensive, community-based process committed to addressing historic and contemporary effects of systemic racism, and to advancing transformational and sustainable change.

Working to Level the Playing Field: COVID-19 and Health Care Inequities

Tamara Bland, acting executive director of the MacNeil School of Nursing and a Faculty Fellow in the ENACT (Education Network for Active Civic Transformation) program, was joined by Neil Ehmig ’16, BSN, a trauma nurse at Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, and Nancy Rivera ’13, who earned her degree in nutrition and dietetics and is program manager of WIC’s (Women, Infants and Children) supplemental food program on Chicago’s south side.



Bland, a former home health care nurse on Chicago’s west side who has done extensive research on health care disparities, provided some insight as to why communities of color are disproportionately impacted by COVID-19, explaining that “race is not the determinant of health care inequities—racism is the cause.” Adding COVID-19 to Black and Brown communities, already vulnerable due to high rates of heart disease, stroke and diabetes, as well as the negative effects of gun violence and police brutality, has caused mortality rates to skyrocket. “We have to get to the root of racism in order to have a positive effect in our Black and Brown communities. We have to improve the health of the community itself. When you look at zip codes from downtown to the west side, it shaves 10 to 15 years off a person’s life. That is heartbreaking. Now is the time to work harder to level the playing field.”



Rivera noted that the south Chicago area where she works is considered a food desert and residents don’t have access to fresh fruits and vegetables. She works with a high-risk population already and this summer’s looting left people with even fewer resources. “I had moms who were devastated and couldn’t make it on regular distribution dates.” The WIC program responded by providing extra resources, including back-to-school materials. “A huge part of helping the community heal is letting people know that you’re listening to them.”



Ehmig discussed his experiences on the frontlines of the pandemic. “Moving into April, we didn’t really know what we were getting into.” Recounting how the hospital rapidly progressed from asking a few nurses to volunteer with COVID cases, to converting his entire department to a COVID unit, he said, “It was about as bad as you think it is. It went from zero to 100 in a very short amount of time.” Ehmig credits Dominican for instilling in him the mission of giving compassionate service. “I went into nursing because I wanted to help people get better. That’s what helps me head into work every day.”