For
Reuben MacNaughton, a senior in the Ithaca College men's crew program, wanting to work with a team to achieve a common goal goes beyond the boat.
MacNaughton worked as a certified nursing assistant (CNA) at Wildflower Court, a nursing home in his hometown of Juneau, Alaska, this past summer. He said that working as a CNA helped him have a better understanding of everything medical professionals can accomplish as a group.
"It gave me an appreciation that I'm really grateful for about how the entire healthcare team works together," MacNaughton said. "You can't function as a healthcare facility if you don't have all the team members working together and communicating."
While working at Wildflower Court, MacNaughton worked directly with residents, as well as working with the nurses to make sure the care plans were being taken care of. He worked with people who needed help with their activities of daily living. He said he would work shifts up to 12 ½ hours long and would typically work three to four shifts per week.
MacNaughton started working at Wildflower Court this summer, meaning he had no experience working there before the coronavirus pandemic. He said that the pandemic had a huge impact on his residents because of the lack of social interaction they could have.
"It's a place for people who need help living, and a huge part of that is psychological and sort of mental health," MacNaughton said. "It can be very isolating for the residents and I think it was really compounded by the fact that we weren't allowed to have visitors and family members weren't allowed to come. We couldn't congregate in big groups and facilitate socialization, so I think it was even more isolating for a lot of residents."
MacNaughton, a public and community health major with a planned interdisciplinary combination in health emphasis, said he was originally an exploratory major. He chose to major in public health because of the potential impact that public health agencies can make. He said that creating policies can help uproot systemic issues and create better health for the overall population.
"We look at a lot of health disparities between different groups," MacNaughton said. "For example, people with lower income have much worse health outcomes than people with higher income. So, the way to change that is not to have more doctors or research new techniques because that's still going to be distributed unfairly. The way to sort of improve the health of the population as a whole is to make policy changes, so that's a lot what public health deals with."
MacNaughton will soon start working at Cayuga Medical Center as a hospital aide in the intensive care unit. He said he is excited to work a similar job, but in two completely different environments. MacNaughton is hoping to pursue the field of nursing when he graduates IC.
Dan Robinson, head coach of the men's crew team, said he can see why MacNaughton would be excellent in working in public health because of his ability to be a great teammate.
"Here he is as a senior, and the team voted him captain," Robinson said. "He's quietly effective, and a perfect fit for what the sport is. In health care, he can play a really important job as part of that team."
As a freshman, MacNaughton joined the men's crew team without ever previously rowing. He helped the Men's Novice Eight finish second at the National Invitational Rowing Championships (NIRC). As a sophomore, he finished sixth at the NIRC, and during the 2019 fall season, he helped the M2V8+ finish first at the Head of Genesee.
"Within the first month of rowing, I just absolutely fell in love with it because it's very much a team-oriented activity," MacNaughton said. "You're sitting in the boat with eight other people, working directly with them just for the sole goal of helping those other people across the finish line. "I stuck with it because I love the sport."
