GMercyU Respiratory Care Graduates Present at PSRC Research Symposium

Graduates of GMercyU’s Respiratory Care program presented research at the Pennsylvania Society for Respiratory Care’s Research (PSRC) Symposium on Thursday, November 17.

Respiratory Care Instructor Melissa Ash, RRT-ACCS, RRT-NPS spearheaded the effort for students to present at the symposium. In Spring 2022, Professor Ash revamped the RC334 Respiratory Research course, where she taught students how to properly design a research project, how to collect and analyze data, and prepare a manuscript for publication. During clinical rotations, students were placed into groups and carried out their research.

In October 2022, the Pennsylvania Respiratory Research Collaborative (PRRC), a member group of the PSRC, put out a call for abstracts for the symposium. Professor Ash encouraged students to submit the abstracts they worked on in the course. Morgan Robertson and Kristina Velez, two GMercyU graduates, were chosen to present.

“During the symposium, both students were commended by well-known respiratory researchers for the quality of research conducted at the student level. I am very proud of how well both girls presented, and it was an honor to have them in my class,” Professor Ash said.