247689 A National Demonstration Project for College Campuses: The Mobile Health Unit

Sunday, October 30, 2011

Reginald Fennell, PhD, CHES, EMT-P , Department of Kinesiology and Health (KNH), Miami University, Oxford, OH
Christopher Escue, MS, CHES , Department of Kinesiology and Health, Miami University (OH), Oxford, OH
According to the American College Health Association – National College Health Assessment (ACHA – NCHA) the top four factors affecting academic performance are stress, sleep difficulties, anxiety, and cold/flu/sore throat. The Mobile Health Unit (MHU) is a groundbreaking three-year national demonstration project for the more than 4,000 colleges and universities in the United States. This session emphasizes the planning and implementation of this national demonstration project and how you might replicate it at your school or college. This innovative project is testing the feasibility of a mobile health unit to deliver health promotion and clinical services on campuses. The Mobile Health Unit received a Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA) Certificate of Waiver which allows the mobile unit to serve as a site for CLIA waived tests (e.g. HIV antibody testing). A staff of two health education specialists and undergraduate peer educators provide health promotion late nights (9:00 p.m. – midnight) near campus bars and restaurants. Clinical services such as influenza vaccinations and HIV antibody testing are provided on-campus. The undergraduate students are trained as peer educators, smoking cessation instructors, trained by officials from the State Department of Health as HIV Antibody Pretest/Posttest Counselors, received Safe Zone training for GLBTQ individuals, and HIPAA training. In seven months (March, April, and August – December of 2010) more than 1,500 students and other visitors have utilized the mobile health unit. Could mobile health units become a trusted source for health promotion and clinical services on school and college campuses in the United States?

Learning Areas:
Administration, management, leadership
Implementation of health education strategies, interventions and programs
Planning of health education strategies, interventions, and programs
Program planning
Protection of the public in relation to communicable diseases including prevention or control
Public health or related nursing

Learning Objectives:
List the steps in planning a student-centered mobile health unit (MHU) on college campuses Describe how to implement a mobile health unit (MHU) for college campuses Discuss implications for using a mobile health unit (MHU) to deliver health promotion and clinical services to colleges students

Keywords: Health Promotion, College Students

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: Reginald Fennell, Ph.D., CHES, F-ACHA, Paramedic is a Professor of Health Promotion at Miami University and past President of the American College Health Association (ACHA). He is one of the three Executive Editors of the Journal of American College Health (JACH), the only scholarly journal devoted entirely to the health of college students. He has authored more than 30 publications and given more than 150 presentations at professional conferences and symposiums. He is the Project Director of the national demonstration project to demonstrate the feasibility of using a mobile health unit on college campuses on the United States.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

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