Kiran Pandey
Staff Writer
Maintaining good health is a challenge to most, 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 will run from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. March 15 and 16 at PSUB, Ballroom, and is free to all students, alumni, faculty and Pocatello community members.
Programs related to health, 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 aspects of physical and mental health.
“Some of the screenings that the visitors can do are blood pressure and pulse, height and weight, point-of-service glucose testing, medication review, gait analysis, anxiety and depression screenings, screening for traumatic brain injury and nutrition education,” said Dr. Carol Kirkpatrick, Wellness Center Director at ISU.
If Health Fair attendees want to have their blood drawn for a variety of health screening blood tests, there is a fee for those services, which can be seen in the ISU Health Fair webpage.
In addition to ISU programs, many health-related businesses in the Pocatello community will also have information booths at the health fair.
“35 booths have been registered from businesses in the community and 15 booths have been registered from ISU faculty and students.”, said Dr. Kirkpatrick.
Around 800 people visited the fair in the past and Dr. Kirkpatrick is expecting to see similar or even more visitors this year.
People are encouraged to participate because the fair gives students in different health profession studies a chance to gain practical experience. Students earn clinical hours for performing the health screenings and the students in attendance get the opportunity to learn more about the health resources in Pocatello available to them.
In conjunction with the ISU Health Fair, the Healthy Bengal Coalition has designated March as Opioid Awareness Month.
“We are offering two Wellness Wednesday seminars, one on March 7 and one on March 14”, said Dr. Kirkpatrick. “I am hoping to also have a final speaker on March 15 during the Health Fair.”
The main goal of the fair is to bring an awareness about the health issues to ISU students and local people.
“The services offered at the ISU Health Fair are meant to increase awareness and education of the attendees and their health and potential health risks,” said Dr. Kirkpatrick. “The hope is that the information that a Health Fair attendee gains by participating in the Health Fair would motivate them to visit a health care provider for additional information and/or testing if needed.”
