Rutgers Health and Science Students Keep Newark Healthy

NEWARK, NJ - Physician assistant students with stethoscopes and a scale checked blood pressure and body mass index. Using spirometers, respiratory therapist-in-training measured lung function. And pharmacy students educated people on the safe disposal of medicine.

For the first time, Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences took part in the Newark Downtown District Farmers Market at PSE&G plaza yesterday, performing about 100 health screenings.

“This is great for our students who will soon be starting their clinical rotations to begin interacting with people. Our focus today is screening and education,” said Thea Cogan-Drew, MMSC, a faculty member in the Physician Assistant program.

The School of Nursing provided information about its community health center, while students from Robert Wood Johnson Medical School performed checkups on teddy bears. The Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy program brought posters and flyers and talked about the importance of taking medications properly. Also providing information were students from the Clinical Lab Sciences and Behavioral Health Care Network.

As she took blood pressures, Amber Fitzpatrick, a student in the Physician Assistant program, discussed what people should do if their numbers were high. “We wrote the number down and recommended they contact their primary care physicians,” she said. “Some of them were on medicine but weren’t taking it and we encouraged them to be more vigilant.”

The Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences Rutgers 250 committee brought health screenings to the farmer’s market as a way to celebrate the 250th anniversary of Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, and the 350th anniversary of the city of Newark. The health screenings, sponsored by Newark350, will take place again at the farmer’s market on July 14.

“We are pleased to provide these resources to help keep residents healthy. This event also offers our students an opportunity to earn community services hours and to provide one-on-one patient care,” said Gwendolyn Mahan, dean of the Rutgers School of Health Professions, and co-chair of the RBHS Rutgers 250 committee.

Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences has eight schools located on campuses in Newark, New Brunswick, Piscataway, Scotch Plains, Somerset Stratford, and other locations, as well as five centers and institutes and a behavioral care network. For more information about the many programs, please visit the website.

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