The 1,100 Special Olympics athletes who came to UD's David M. Nelson Athletic Complex in June got more than an opportunity to compete in the statewide 2002 Delaware Summer Games. Thanks to CHNS students and health-care providers from the community, they also got the chance to be screened in various aspects of wellness.

It was the second year of a program called Healthy Athletes, created in Delaware by Special Olympics official Jon Buzby, a supplemental faculty member in the Department of Health and Exercise Sciences. The program is designed to help the athletes improve their health and fitness and give health professionals the chance to work with people with disabilities.

Special Olympics Delaware provides a year-round program of sports training and athletic competition for children and adults with mental retardation or other learning impairments. The group, whose training and program center is adjacent to the University's Delaware Field House, is part of the international Special Olympics organization.

At the 2002 Delaware Summer Games, CHNS students and faculty conducted blood pressure screenings and height and weight checks for athletes. The tests were one component of 10 health screenings being offered by the local medical community.

As the athletes arrived at Delaware Stadium, they saw tents set up in the parking area surrounded by giant inflated rides and a recreational climbing wall. Inside the tents, doctors, nurses, audiologists, nutritionists and cancer specialists administered dental screenings, eye and hearing exams, flexibility tests, foot examinations and various wellness screenings during the two days of competition. They also handed out educational information about such subjects as injury prevention and sun protection.

Three months earlier, more than 500 athletes competed at UD in a two-day Special Olympics basketball tournament in which students from all departments of CHNS worked with the Healthy Athletes initiative. Health and exercise sciences students helped organize the competition itself--as they have for many years--and also conducted some flexibility testing of athletes. Nutrition and dietetics students calculated body-mass indexes, nursing students checked blood pressure readings, and medical technology students assisted in a variety of areas, Buzby says.

"Our goal was to get the entire College involved in Healthy Athletes at the basketball tournament in March, and it was very successful," he says. "Our plan is for this to become an annual event with this same degree of College-wide participation."

The College of Health and Nursing Sciences was eager to take part in the program, according to Pamela Beeman, associate dean.

"Our College jumped in because this was a wonderful opportunity for our students to increase their health assessment skills when working with people with mental retardation and other learning impairments," Beeman says. She supervised one of the Healthy Athletes wellness screening sessions in June, along with Judith Herrman, clinical instructor, and Carolee Polek, assistant professor of nursing. Members of the UD chapter of the international nursing honor society Sigma Theta Tau organized the booth.

In the first morning session, Herrman supervised students Amy McElfresh, Jessica Marchlik, Nina Simon, Randi Westermann and Patty Hannah.

Hannah says the experience of working with a unique population gave her an insight she didn't have before. "Having the opportunity to see these kids and adults having fun and just being themselves helps me understand that they aren't much different from me," she says.

"We all have our strengths and our weaknesses, and we all deal with them."

Herrman says it's especially important that nursing students, who eventually will have to assess the conditions of all kinds of people, experience many different populations and learn how to work with each.

The students did blood pressure checks and weight, height and waist measurements. Then, each athlete was given a "report card" with all that information calculated to indicate whether the person was overweight or not at risk, or had high, low or normal blood pressure. For each set of numbers indicating a risk factor, the card advised the athlete to see his or her doctor.

In addition to helping the athletes, the screenings also are being used for research. Polek is analyzing the data collected, hoping the findings will help to identify common health problems and "to see where we can put our energies" in future projects with Special Olympics.

--Barbara Garrison