SPOKANE.–Spokane Community College opened its new Student Health Center in partnership with the People’s Clinic under the auspices of the Washington State University Intercollegiate College of Nursing (ICN) Sept. 19.
The center is located in Building 9, Room 149 and will be open Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Fridays from 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. These hours will tentatively be in effect through June 15, 2007, with holiday and school closures following the college’s calendar.
Walk-in services at the health center include primary diagnosis and initial managements of minor illness or injury, prescribed and over-the-counter medications, diagnostic tests, hypertension screening, Department of Transportation (DOT) physicals, immunizations and more.
With the Intercollegiate College of Nursing’s undergraduate and graduate nursing programs and SCC’s extensive nursing and allied health programs, the health center offers students the opportunity for pre-clinical, hands-on practice, which has been shown to significantly enhance student skills. Healthcare students from both the Intercollegiate College of Nursing and Spokane Community College may have opportunities to work in the health center, in tandem with nurse practitioners and faculty members from the ICN and SCC.
Dr. Margaret Bruya, assistant dean for the WSU ICN’s Academic Health Services, who oversees both the Spokane Falls Community College and downtown YWCA People’s Clinics, said, “The new SCC Health Center not only responds to the documented student need for clinical assistance with minor illnesses and injuries, it also provides a hands-on clinical setting in which students from multiple healthcare programs can work in a team setting. Also, as we’ve found with the SFCC clinic, having a health center on site at a college helps contribute to student retention and program completion, so it’s a win-win for all involved.”
A student survey at SCC was conducted during spring quarter of 2005 and indicated that students were willing to pay an annual fee to support an on-campus health center, in addition to a small user fee ($5-10 per visit). However, at this time, there is no cost for SCC students to use the health center except for a minimal fee to cover immunization costs.
For more information about the SCC Student Health Center, visit the SCC Web site at scc.spokane.edu. The SCC Student Health Center is sponsored by the SCC Associated Student Council.
Established in 1968, WSU Intercollegiate College of Nursing is the nation’s first, oldest and most comprehensive nursing education consortium. The College of Nursing offers baccalaureate, graduate and professional development course work to nursing students enrolled in Spokane through its four consortium partners, Eastern Washington University, Gonzaga University, Washington State University and Whitworth College.
The same programs are also offered in several communities across the state including Yakima, Vancouver, Tri-Cities and Walla Walla using WSU’s Academic Media Services’ interactive video system, as well as videoconferencing, video streaming and web based instruction. As the largest college of nursing in the Pacific Northwest, the WSU Intercollegiate College of Nursing is currently educating more than 850 upper-division undergraduate and graduate students, and each year graduates more entry-level nurses than any other educational institution in the state. In addition, its faculty researchers are contributing significantly to the knowledge base of the profession and of health care. For more information about the Intercollegiate College of Nursing and Spokane Community College, please visit their web sites at nursing.wsu.edu and scc.spokane.edu.
