Student health centers treat everything from sprains to high blood pressure

Nevada, U.S.: With more than 20 comfy examination rooms, a visually appealing pharmacy stocked with both prescription and over-the-counter medications (as well as bowls of freebie items in single-dose packets), its digs in the still like-new Student Recreation and Wellness Center and a range of amenities that includes — honest — massage chairs, UNLV’s Student Health Center is the nicest place on campus that students never want to visit.

But visit they likely will at some point during their academic careers, be it for the flu, a nasty cut, a painful sprain or sports injury, or a sudden-onset gastrointestinal ailment.

And when that day arrives, it could mark, particularly for freshmen, a personal milestone in the student’s life: the first time he or she ever has had to seek out medical care entirely on his or her own, without Mom’s or Dad’s help/oversight/nagging.

“College is such an amazing time in our lives,” says Amie Duford, institutional student health director at Touro University Nevada. “But it’s also very stressful, because (students are) trying to develop new routines and make new friends, and they also become responsible for managing their own health and their own lifestyle and, really, becoming an adult.”

Most students handle their new responsibilities well. They know how to manage their medical conditions. They know when, where and how to seek medical help on campus. They even may have packed among their move-in boxes a few basic first-aid supplies, just in case.

“I think that some students and some parents are very prepared and ready and some, maybe, not so much,” says Kathy Underwood, director of UNLV’s Student Health Center. “I think it’s a journey, and for each student it’s a little bit different.”

- reviewjournal.com