Madeleine Coles
Staff Writer
Being an adult means you have to make your own doctor’s appointments and take responsibility for your health, which, let’s face it, is hard work. But the ISU Health Fair can help relieve students from the time, effort and money it takes to get a full health screening.
The health fair is free for all ISU students and faculty as well as members of the Pocatello community. Several ISU programs such as the School of Nursing, Department of Physical Therapy, the Dietetics Program, the Department of Dental Hygiene, the ISU Hearing Clinic and the ISU Department of Counseling will be there to provide free health screenings, as well as educate attendees on many aspects of physical and mental health.
Members of the Pocatello community can also get discounts on blood testing through the health fair. ISU students and faculty as well as community members can have their blood drawn at either the ISU Medical Laboratory Science Laboratory or the Portneuf Medical Center. Participants can be tested for coronary risk, comprehensive metabolic panel, complete blood count, thyroid-stimulating hormone, prostate-specific antigen and glycohemoglobin for significantly lower prices than what would normally be available to them.
In addition to ISU programs, many health-related businesses in the Pocatello community will also have information booths at the health fair.
“ISU Credit Union will be there, and we’ll have some chiropractors there. We’ll also have some animal hospitals there,” said Stephen Wright, adjunct professor in the Health Care Administration Program. “Really, if you can think of something, we’ll most likely have it.”
Wright says that one of the main reasons for the health fair is to increase student’s awareness of the healthcare opportunities available to them.
“It gives you really good exposure to some of the health clinics that we have on campus,” Wright said. “It also gives you exposure to some of the health professions in general. If you’re still trying to figure out what you want to major in, you can interact with students who are pursuing careers in those fields.”
According to Wright, the health fair also benefits students in health-related programs that will participate in the fair.
“Being a health professional doesn’t mean that you’re always sitting behind a desk. This gives you a chance to interact with and educate the public,” Wright said. “Portneuf Medical Center will be there doing recruiting as well. So this gives students opportunities to see programs that are available to them after they graduate.”
This will be the 35th year that ISU has held the health fair, and to celebrate, the health fair will also be used as a student recruitment event for the first time ever.
“We’re going to bring in a few hundred high school students throughout the region to really see what the health profession is all about,” Wright said. “We have this really nice, natural fit of a high school recruiting fair as well.”
The high school students will have an opportunity to learn about the health programs at ISU as well as see the programs in practice by witnessing the health screenings that will be going on.
The fair is also used as a fundraising opportunity for some programs.
“The dental hygiene program will be selling white strips for a really good price, and a couple other programs will be using it for some fundraising opportunities as well,” Wright said.
Ultimately, Wright said, the ISU Health Fair is a great opportunity for both students and community members to receive free health screenings and information to keep themselves healthy in the future as well as to receive, in the words of Wright, “lots and lots of free stuff.”
The ISU Health Fair will be held in the Pond Student Union Building on March 17 and 18 from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m.
