School of Nursing Leads the Campus Effort

The following is an excerpt from the full story. Read more and stay up to-date on this study by visiting nursing.ubc.ca/news.

UBC students living in residence and other select groups living and working on the Vancouver campus this summer will be able to access a new COVID-19 self-testing clinic, which opened May 26 on the third floor of the Orchard Commons student residence.

“UBC Nursing faculty, graduate and undergraduate students are collaborating with colleagues in public health, virology and other UBC departments to be able to offer this screening to the UBC community,” explained Dr. Sabrina Wong, who is a UBC Nursing and Centre for Health Services and Policy Research professor. Members of the UBC School of Nursing team, some of whom are pictured below, include Dr. Kirsten Haase, Dr. Emmanuela Ojukwu, Frances Affleck, nursing students Erica Tobias and Innocent Ndateba, and staff member Klara Hill.

As part of the study, participants will be asked to give themselves the test as well as have a second test administered by a registered nurse. Identical results from both tests, or congruence, will demonstrate that the test can be successfully self-administered. Clinic attendees will also be asked to interpret their own test results.

“It’s a little like reading a pregnancy test,” said Dr. Wong. “One bar is negative, and two bars means there is a high likelihood of being positive for COVID-19. This screening kit is designed to be self-administered. One of the things we are testing is whether that works in the real world.

This summer clinic is being launched on the heels of an earlier study by Dr. Wong and her team of the BD Veritor Rapid SARS-CoV-2 antigen test. The spring pilot was only available to students and staff living or working in select student residences between February to April 2021.

“Students were testing to protect themselves and those around them,” explained Dr. Wong. “It’s fast, it’s easy, and it allowed us to break the chains of transmission sooner.”

The first study provided rapid screening test to over 1,100 unique individuals. The nasal swab was collected by UBC Nursing students as part of their public health rotation with training and supervision provided by UBC School of Nursing faculty. The pilot project identified a number of asymptomatic positive cases early, which helped interrupt further transmission.

“The UBC School of Nursing was quick to mobilize faculty, staff, and students for both of these COVID-19 testing studies,” said Dr. Elizabeth Saewyc, Director and professor of the UBC School of Nursing. “This ongoing collaborative effort really embodies UBC’s Campus as a Living Laboratory philosophy to integrate operational, educational, and research expertise to swiftly respond to societal challenges.”

Over the course of the summer the research team will also be evaluating the sensitivity of the self-test kits by comparing self-administered test results with the gold standard laboratory tests to assess the kits for potential false-positive and false-negative results.