Event organized by undergraduate and graduate nursing students
By: Julianna M. Pietak
The Division of Nursing, under Barry’s new College of Health Sciences, brought its students and expertise to members of Barry and the surrounding community Tuesday, July 8 with its second annual health fair.
For the first time, the event was also open to members of local communities, specifically the Haitian community of El Portal. The health fair is a student-run, collaborative effort – organized and designed by more than 40 master’s students from NUR 679 with assistance from undergraduate nursing students, as well as ACE’s EMT program.
“The goal of the event was to provide an experience for our nursing students to produce a health fair where they could put health promotion and disease prevention into action,” said organizer Pam Wessling, assistant professor of nursing.
Participants were offered a broad range of services and resources, many of them hands-on, such as cholesterol, blood pressure, BMI and blood glucose screenings. In addition, students organized information booths, providing resources on nutrition, stress management, sun exposure education, poison control, women’s health, CPR training and a variety of other health related topics.
In addition to serving the Barry community, the health fair also targeted many in surrounding Miami-Dade communities – specifically underserved communities such as that in El Portal. Students were on-hand at the event to translate in both Spanish and Creole.
“For many of our participants who do not have insurance or regular primary care, we also provided referrals to clinics and services that are targeted towards the socially disadvantaged,” Wessling said. “We also plan to continue offering these fairs for this community. We are interested in growing the collaborative spirit with other Barry departments.”
