Rare Uplifting COVID-Related News Story has Health Communication Instructor to Thank
As director of communications for the Spaulding Rehabilitation Network, Tim Sullivan (MET’06) is frequently reminded of the adage he often shares with students in his online Media Relations for Health Communicators (MET HC 758) course: “Having a job in communication means having communication responsibilities, as well as ‘other duties as assigned,’” the MET health communication instructor says.
Never has that sentiment been truer than during the current global COVID-19 pandemic, when professionals of all stripes are adjusting to new and developing roles and responsibilities across organizations. As a representative of a specialized academic teaching hospital, has seen his own duties evolve, putting him in position to lean into the skills he developed during his studies in the MET Master of Science in Advertising program, as well as the ones he helps hone in current online Master of Science in Health Communication and Graduate Certificate in Visual & Digital Health Communication students.
Mr. Sullivan recently had the opportunity to play a pivotal role in bringing a powerful and positive bit of health communication to the world. In March, Chelsea’s Isabel Gonzalez was admitted to Massachusetts General Hospital, when her pregnancy was complicated by her having tested positive for COVID-19. After a successful emergency C-Section, Ms. Gonzalez was admitted to the ICU, where she was put on a ventilator, to combat the novel coronavirus before she even had the chance to hold her newborn daughter, Victoria.
After 6 weeks of recovery, on Tuesday, May 12, Ms. Gonzalez was discharged from Spaulding Hospital in Cambridge, where family surprised her with the child they had been rearing in her absence. News cameras captured the beautiful moment, and the story reached far and wide—from an array of New England media outlets to the national Today show. But some of the camerawork that viewers in nearly 40 countries enjoyed was itself evidence of that “other duties assigned” lesson Sullivan offers his students.
“It’s been wild figuring out how to do these stories,” Sullivan says. “The funny thing is, as no media are allowed in our hospitals, I’ve ended up shooting all these stories any video or images inside the hospitals. I’ve been shooting a lot lately, and setting up experts on video calls, so my background in video production has come in handy. It’s been quite the exercise, figuring these out.”
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