2011 UMKC Wellness Fair

After I finished sharing information about free clinics and our UMKC Wellness Fair with the callers from the Cover the Uninsured phone-a-thon (see previous post), I was geared up for the Saturday of service ahead of me! Every year, UMKC has a Wellness Fair. Started by nursing students a few years ago, this fair is a smorgasbord of information for Kansas City metro citizens. In one afternoon, you can have a full check-up, blood labs drawn, a physical done, get a nutrition plan, get your immunization shots, and get a voucher for healthy food options which you can redeem at the mobile food bank right outside the hospital. All these services are 100% free. How? By the amazing support of local Kansas City businesses and branch offices that donate supplies and about 150 volunteers from the UMKC Nursing, Pharmacy, Dental, and Medical Schools.

Playing Simon says with the kiddos is a fun way to assess their strength and range of motion :-)  And make me look a little silly.

This year, the medical students and I were assigned to sports physicals and check-ups. Over 180 grade schoolers, middle schoolers, and high schoolers came in to get their annual sports physical. These physicals are required by the Missouri Board of Athletics for the students to participate in school and summer sports. For those kids who don't have insurance, this may be the only physical or doctors visit they get for the whole year. So, we do a complete comprehensive check up on them and provide them and their parents with their medical records, in case of emergency. While these children don't have the opportunity for consistent doctor's visits, through our Wellness Fair, we are providing them the screening needed for early identification of problems. Or how I like to think of it, we are giving them the preventative medicine that they need. For 5 hours of being open, 18 medical students saw 187 kids. It was a full day's work! But, well worth it! Who knows; maybe I just gave a physical to a future Lebron James! It's great to think that not only are we opening up health care opportunities to these kids, but opening up extracurricular opportunities for them (and maybe a possible career). That's neat to think about. :-)

Future sports star???

Thanks to all the students who volunteered, and Rini for helping our professors plan everything! Also, Thank you, Bob, for taking such great pics!