Nurse Managed Health Center provides service while also educating students
The Nurse Managed Health Center (NMHC)
at the University of Delaware was launched in
August 2010 to provide health care for UD
employees on campus, but the center is also
providing a valuable interprofessional
education opportunity for UD students.
During January 2012, the NMHC
conducted physical exams and fitness testing
for the 45 officers in the UD police force,
with graduate students from three academic
units in the College of Health Sciences participating in all aspects of the screenings
under the direction of NMHC director and
nurse practitioner Allen Prettyman.
Alex DelCollo, a student in the health promotion master's program, checks an officer's pulse before conducting fitness tests. [Photo by Kathy Atkinson]
Through the program, graduate students in kinesiology and
applied physiology performed treadmill
exercise stress tests; students in the graduate nurse practitioner program performed physical exams and assisted with stress testing; and graduate students in health promotion, working through UD's Employee Wellness Program, gained experience with biometric
measurements and health education.
In addition, undergraduates in medical
technology collected blood samples,
performed routine urinalysis, and processed
and prepared laboratory samples.
Programs enriched by hands-on
clinical experience
"Interprofessional education has been
endorsed by the Institute of Medicine as a
mechanism to improve the overall quality of
health care," said College of Health Sciences
Dean Kathleen Matt. "The project with UD
Public Safety is a great example of an
academically enriching interdisciplinary
program for our students, that also provides a
medical screening service for an important
segment of the University community."
"This program is enabling them to see in real
time some of the things they're learning about
in class," said Associate Professor Shelley
Provost-Craig. "In some instances, they're
observing symptoms that they might
otherwise only read about in a book, and
they're learning what they should do in these
cases. It's also a nice experience for them to
interface with students in other health care
disciplines."
Nurse practitioner student Amanda Galloway
works in the medical intensive care unit at
Christiana Care, where she sees only very sick
patients. "Here, I'm working with people who
are mostly healthy," she said. "The experience
I'm gaining in performing routine physicals is
good practice for what I'll be doing when I
graduate."
According to Kathy Corbitt, director of UD's
Employee Wellness Program, the current
program builds on an existing physical
assessment protocol that her office had been
conducting for the UD Police over the past
four years.
"Through our new partnership with the
College of Health Sciences, we were able to
expand the existing protocol and provide the
officers with a very comprehensive physical to
include labwork and stress testing, among
other things," she said.
"Our portion of the appointment assesses
their individual fitness level in the areas of
muscular strength, endurance, flexibility and
body composition. Together, the entire
experience provides them with a better
understanding of both their individual fitness
level and their overall health. Our staff and
students take time during the appointment to
discuss their current fitness regimen and set
goals to prepare them for their annual fitness
test in the spring."
Benefits to the UD community
For the UD police officers, the program
enabled all of the required annual health
services to be provided under one roof in one
coordinated appointment.
"By its very nature, police work can have a
profound effect on an officer's health," said
Chief Patrick Ogden, director of Public
Safety at UD. "Officers encounter many
challenges to their health that include shift
work, physically demanding tasks, exposure to
the outdoor elements, and the responsibility
of making life-and-death decisions at any
moment of their tour of duty, all while
maintaining their own safety."
"A large part of an officer staying safe is by
being healthy and staying physically fit," he
added. "This annual assessment allows officers
to maintain a level of health and physical
fitness that will help them make it home safely
to their families and loved ones at the end of
each tour of duty."
