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by Tara Beverly
In honor of American Heart
Health Month, Community Service Programs (CSP) held an open
house from 8 a.m. until noon in the bottom floor of Grosvenor
Hall, where its offices are located. Medical students, nurses and community members attended
for blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar screenings.
Snacks such as fruit, coffee cake and juice were provided for
those who attended. CSP’s Mobile Health Unit was also parked
outside of Grosvenor and was available for tours.
Nancy Schell, program
coordinator
of CSP, was very excited about the event.
“Earlier this month, on Feb. 4,
we had women’s “Go Red Day,” an opportunity for women to get
blood and glucose screenings. It was such a success we wanted to
do more screenings later in the month. It is important for us to
involve medical students and faculty, because to many people
here at the medical school, we are an unknown department. We are
not strictly clinical and not academic. We wanted to take
advantage of this day to reach out to the students and encourage
them to come work with us in the community,” says Shell.
During the open house, visitors
walked along tables, which were made into different screening
stations. At each table a nurse or medical student administered
cholesterol, blood pressure and blood sugar screenings. One
table was decorated with signs and posters and on it laid
pamphlets and booklets about different programs that CSP
provides and general information about CSP.
Candace Brown,
second-year student, was very interested. She came out to learn
more about CSP and to get screened.
“I’ve been screened for just
about everything today. I fasted this morning to get a more
accurate screening. This event was very helpful. So many times
we, as medical students, are so busy studying and on the go that
we forget to take care of ourselves. We don’t exercise and eat
healthy, which can lead to hypertension and heart disease. These
screenings allow for early detection of those problems,” says
Brown.
Nick Kimpel, second-year
student, was also very appreciative of the open house. He
discussed his feeling on the event while getting a blood
pressure screening.
“I think it’s wonderful that
they provide a free screening service to students, staff and
community members. I learned a lot about CSP today. I think that
their programs are great. They provide a value service to the
Athens and surrounding areas,” says Kimpel.
Janice Smith, Healthy
Adult Project coordinator, worked at the event. As she did a
blood sugar screening on a student, she discussed what a success
the event had been thus far.
“We have been very busy today.
We have done more than 30 screenings. There were a few people
from the public, but mostly we have had students. The students
seem to be coming out and supporting our program. We are excited
that they came to see what we are about,” she says.
In addition to these free
screenings, year round area-wide services provided by CSP
include the Childhood Immunization Program, the Healthy Adult
Program, the Perinatal Services/Baby Steps Program, the Well
Child Program, the Healthy Child Care Ohio Nurse Consultants,
the Well Child/Well Families program, the Healthy Families
program and the AmeriCorps program.
- 30 -
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