Karen Garcia |
Cold and flu season hits our campus hard every year, and recent years have left the University Health Center overwhelmed by the student demand for appointments.
ASUP President John Julius Muwulya and School of Nursing Senator Chelsea Richards have started a dialogue with Paul Myers, director of the Health Center, hoping to address student concern with both long and short-term plans for the Health Center.
Sophomore Meghan Blatt was frustrated when, after coughing for nearly three weeks, she was unable to make an appointment at the Health Center. Fearful that she was suffering from something more serious than a cold, Blatt called the Center early on a Thursday, hoping to be squeezed in the following day.
Every day, the Health Center reserves some time slots for appointments made more than a day in advance, while other slots are left open for students who want same-day appointments.
Blatt was told that there were only same-day appointments open on Friday, so she was put on a cancellation list for Thursday, before being advised to call in as soon as the Center opened on Friday morning (8:30 a.m.). When she did, Blatt was informed that the available nurse practitioner wouldn’t be in for the day, but that she was expected back by Monday.
Not wanting to wait out the weekend, Blatt asked a friend for a ride to an urgent care clinic in Vancouver, Washington, that night.
“It was disappointing because it should be so much easier to get help when you need it,” Blatt said. “I was worried.”
Complaints from students with cases similar to Blatt’s have reached Myers, who notes that there are only three people on staff available to help with medical issues: a registered nurse, a family nurse practitioner and a certified medical assistant.
This means that for every 1,030 students, there is one provider. Myers said it is common for more than three students to desire a specific slot because of scheduling conflicts. As enrollment grows annually (the class of 2018 is the largest in UP history), the ratio will become increasingly disproportionate and eventually require some sort of change.
Myers and ASUP would like to expand the Health Center and add staff in the future. Funding for the Health Center comes from tuition costs, and because student demand is so variable throughout the year, the Health Center has held off on any expansion efforts thus far.
“We are springing ideas on a proposal that we can present to administration in order to bring awareness that the Health Center will need more funding to grow,” Senator Chelsea Richards said.
ASUP and the Health Center have discussed the possibility of moving Career Services to the main floor of Buckley Center in order to create a central location for academic services. This move would allow the lower level of Orrico Hall to be used for mental health counseling services, leaving the upper level open for the creation of more medical examination rooms.
In addition to physical expansion, Myers and ASUP also hope the University will ultimately fund more staff, including another nurse practitioner, a psychiatric nurse, and a triage nurse. A triage nurse’s services would streamline the Center’s services by quickly determining incoming patients’ needed level of care.
For now, Myers encourages students to seek out information about common illnesses from the Health Center’s website and on flyers distributed throughout campus. He said that educated students can self-diagnose and consider not going to class while sick.
“There’s an interesting challenge between campus health centers across the country, and college culture,” Myers said. “Often students feel like they can’t miss a single class, and so they go and cough and sneeze, and then share the wealth, exacerbating the problem.
“Students imagine that a professor won’t be flexible, so they don’t bother to check. But some professors may prefer that the student looks after themselves first.”
If students determine that they want to be evaluated sooner than the Health Center can see them, they are referred to alternative sources, such as local urgent care clinics and emergency rooms. Many students with outside insurance can also call nurse or physician hotlines that can help them determine the best course of treatment.
“ASUP has invited the Health Center to give them any information they can share with constituents,” Myers said. “We plan to do that; communication will help us figure out how to line things up better in the future.”
Mental health services unaffected by busy season
Although high demand may make scheduling a medical appointment difficult at times, Myers urges students not to let this overshadow the mental health services and available appointments provided by the Health Center.
“The biggest misconception I’ve been hearing is, ‘You won’t be able to get an appointment at the Health Center, so don’t even try,’” Myers said. “This isn’t true, and it casts a halo effect around the other services that we provide, like mental health counseling.”
Students interested in making a mental health appointment can call to schedule one for one or more days in advance, and they can also take advantage of same day time slots. In general, wait times to see a professional are very brief, with most students being able to see someone the same or next day.
Same day appointments usually consist of short, 20-minute sessions in which the student is able to unload to a mental health professional and then make a preliminary plan of assessment for the future.
“For a large number of students, [20 minutes] is really all they need—something’s come off the rails, and they need to get a validation of what they should do,” Myers said.
Those who are in need of more than a quick consult with a counselor can be plugged into schedule to see a professional on a routine basis.
In cases of a student dealing with an urgent circumstance, like a death, threat of harm to self or others, or signs of a thought disorder, the Health Center follows a protocol that allows them to meet with the student as soon as possible.
Contact Staff Writer Karen Garcia at garciaka17@up.edu.
