2008 Woodie Awards
ISU Student Health center puts students first
Dilan Brown
Issue date: 3/8/06 Section: Life
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The hard-working folks at ISU's Student Health Center are good people, and want to see you do well.
"We wake up everyday wanting to help the student body," says registered nurse Paulette Canfield, who for eleven years has been head nurse at the SHC.
"People here love what they're doing,"said Canfield. "These are not people who could not find a job somewhere else."
Recently, the SHC has undertaken a campus-wide effort to further educate ISU students about student health issues. How? By placing continually updated health information on poster boards to be displayed in designated restrooms around campus. The locations selected were ones most frequented by the student body. Canfield lists the Liberal Arts, Library, SUB, and student housing buildings as probable spots for the campaign.
Some of the themes covered in the posters include: body image distortion, stress management, nutrition and domestic violence among others.
"We're trying to do things that will get information to the students who need it about the things they need," says Canfield. "If it sparks a thought in their brain, maybe they'll go to the poster and say, 'maybe this is an issue for me, maybe it's an issue for my buddy'".
Canfield sites frequent respitory problems as an indication of the stress on college students at large, and the toll it takes on their health. The steady accumulation of stress, poor sleeping habits, patchy nutrition, as well as several other overlooked factors can inflict a horrid effect on students.
"A lot of people are on their own, away from home for the first time," says Canfield. "Sometimes they don't know how to take care of themselves when they're sick. They don't know when they're sick enough to come to a doctor. They don't know how to make a meal, what a meal consists of. We're trying to make their experience at ISU a positive one; one they can actually complete, make their experience easier for them. So academically they can excel. If you're healthy, if you're eating right, if you're thinking clearly, you can excel, you can be at your best."
All of this is only a sliver of the information the Student Health Center is trying to convey to students. Canfield feels that with the high quality of the facilities and faculty of the center, that any student going untreated is one too many.
For your every-day student Canfield suggests a decent diet, exercise, healthy and consistent sleep habits, and the underrated activity of washing your hands. This coupled with the best stress-management you can muster will surely assist a strong semester-ending push.
"The better you take care of yourself, the more you get to classes, the better your award is going to be in the end. Come to the health center," says Canfield. "We love the students; we're here for the students."
"We wake up everyday wanting to help the student body," says registered nurse Paulette Canfield, who for eleven years has been head nurse at the SHC.
"People here love what they're doing,"said Canfield. "These are not people who could not find a job somewhere else."
Recently, the SHC has undertaken a campus-wide effort to further educate ISU students about student health issues. How? By placing continually updated health information on poster boards to be displayed in designated restrooms around campus. The locations selected were ones most frequented by the student body. Canfield lists the Liberal Arts, Library, SUB, and student housing buildings as probable spots for the campaign.
Some of the themes covered in the posters include: body image distortion, stress management, nutrition and domestic violence among others.
"We're trying to do things that will get information to the students who need it about the things they need," says Canfield. "If it sparks a thought in their brain, maybe they'll go to the poster and say, 'maybe this is an issue for me, maybe it's an issue for my buddy'".
Canfield sites frequent respitory problems as an indication of the stress on college students at large, and the toll it takes on their health. The steady accumulation of stress, poor sleeping habits, patchy nutrition, as well as several other overlooked factors can inflict a horrid effect on students.
"A lot of people are on their own, away from home for the first time," says Canfield. "Sometimes they don't know how to take care of themselves when they're sick. They don't know when they're sick enough to come to a doctor. They don't know how to make a meal, what a meal consists of. We're trying to make their experience at ISU a positive one; one they can actually complete, make their experience easier for them. So academically they can excel. If you're healthy, if you're eating right, if you're thinking clearly, you can excel, you can be at your best."
All of this is only a sliver of the information the Student Health Center is trying to convey to students. Canfield feels that with the high quality of the facilities and faculty of the center, that any student going untreated is one too many.
For your every-day student Canfield suggests a decent diet, exercise, healthy and consistent sleep habits, and the underrated activity of washing your hands. This coupled with the best stress-management you can muster will surely assist a strong semester-ending push.
"The better you take care of yourself, the more you get to classes, the better your award is going to be in the end. Come to the health center," says Canfield. "We love the students; we're here for the students."