Pharmacy students present health fair

11/03/09 - Freshman pharmacy students from the University of Rhode Island set up shop yesterday in the Memorial Union Ballroom where they presented various health awareness booths to the public.Along with the URI pharmacy students, the Feinstein Center for Service Learning helped to coordinate the event ,where more than 25 booths were available to provide students with general health information.

The booths were run by URI 101 pharmacy classes. The students' mentors assigned specific health topics to their classes. The freshmen were then responsible for creating a poster filled with information regarding their topic, along with factual handouts.

The booths addressed problems such as fitness and wellness, H1N1 prevention, quitting smoking, diabetes, STDs, AIDS awareness, asthma, nutrition, stress management and hand washing.

The student manning the hand washing booth provided a quick experiment that showed volunteers how fast germs spread using glitter to represent germs. The student poured the glitter into the volunteer's hands and then shook their hand, showing how many germs spread from person to person. The volunteer was then asked to touch the desk to show the spread of germs from person to objects.

At the completion of the experiment the volunteer was given hand sanitizer, which was unable to remove the glitter from his or her hand. The students used this analogy to show that washing one's hands is more effective.

A fact sheet provided students with information and tips on hand washing and germs, advising students to make sure not to miss between their fingers and the backs of their hands when washing.

The diabetes station provided free blood sugar testing, which was administered by a pharmacy professor with the assistance of a sixth-year pharmacy student.

Faculty from URI's athletic and recreation center provided the fitness and wellness booth. Information about how to stay fit was provided, advising students to get involved with university clubs and intramural sports, or join the wellness classes offered in the Mackal studio.

A body fat test was also available and students who volunteered were put in a raffle to win a free yoga mat. The device that measured body fat took student volunteers only a minute or two and asked them general questions about their height, weight, age and sex. In a matter of seconds, students' body fat was calculated.

Another booth gave information on prescription drug use. The students created prescription bottles labeled with myths and facts regarding prescription drug use. The labeled bottles were filled with M&Ms and given to the attendees.

Students and faculty were also able to sign up to be a bone marrow donor. Donors signed a short form with their personal information and had their DNA sampled through a cheek swab. Their information was put on file and they will be contacted if they are a potential bone marrow match with a patient.

Students working the booths felt that the health awareness fair was a good idea.

"It's somewhat related to our major," freshman Robert Kalesnik-Orszulak said.