Ponderings While Getting My Flu Shot

Today I got my free flu shot in Cholla Hall on the Glendale Campus, expertly administered by one of the faculty members of the College of Pharmacy. It got me to thinking about the fact that as an employee of a health sciences university, I have lots of opportunities to improve my own personal health.

On both of our campuses, our students and faculty are constantly finding ways to share their knowledge and expertise about health care. In Downers, we host a Mini-Med School, where MWU folks, prospective students, and members of the local community can learn what it is like to be a med student, taking courses that cover a wide spectrum of health topics. The fall program starts October 20 (for more info, go to http://minimed.midwestern.edu). Our students hold health fairs and screenings on campus as well as talks about various health topics open to the entire community. This coming Saturday, October 18, is our Fall Health Professions Career Day in Downers from 9:00 am to 12:00 pm; another opportunity to learn about our programs and visit our campus (go to www.midwestern.edu/events/dgprofessionsday.asp).

In Glendale, the MWU Clinic hosts weekly "lunch and learn" lectures for everyone on campus. Recent topics cover everything from sleep to asthma to nutrition to pain management. At the local library, MWU hosts a Community Health Lecture Series with faculty from all of our colleges talking about their research interests or specialty areas; upcoming topics include infectious diseases, women's health, ADD, dangerous plants and venomous creatures in the desert, and diabetes. Our faculty have conducted community-wide training sessions for Continuous Chest Compression, the new way to do CPR. Like in Downers, our students host high school physicals programs, health fairs, and speakers on campus. At both campuses, our HR department and its Wellness Committee has put together a great Wellness Program, where employees can "earn" vacation hours for tracking their health in various dimensions (physical, emotional, spiritual, mental, social, etc).

Frankly, there is no good reason for me not to be healthy, since I am surrounded every day by reminders of the importance of maintaining good health. The benefits of being a member of a health care community starts with our students and faculty but extends to all of us who are privileged to work here. Our students learn to appreciate all aspects of health care, since they are constantly exposed not only to their own future profession but those of their colleagues in other colleges and programs. This extends to our alumni as well. I have been honored to work with our alumni/faculty in osteopathic medicine, pharmacy, physician assistant studies, and physical therapy to put together a university-wide, interdisciplinary CE/CME program on metabolic syndrome.

So, the lesson of my flu shot this morning was that Midwestern University is a truly special place for health education of all kinds and for all of us.