Helping with health

UTRGV’s School of Nursing program class, Community, invites the public to its Health Fair, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday at the Lasara Sports Complex.

The event will be hosted at 11932 Jones St. in Lasara, a community in Willacy County, and members expect to help about 500 people.

“Yearly, the nursing program holds this sort of event,” nursing senior Roberto Garza said. “They hold a health fair every year and one of our classes is called Community, in which we interact with a certain community and try to promote the health of that community.”

The 124 students from the nursing program are separated into 11 groups; each will have a specific task during Health Fair.

“We are going to have immunizations,” nursing senior Cheyenne Solis said. “We are going to do height, weight, BMIs, blood pressure, glucose checks, cholesterol checks, breast exams, testicular exams, head-to-toe wellness exams, diabetic foot care, teaching, as well as examination.”

Clinical Assistant Professor Liji Mathew said she has been teaching the course since 2011.

“Every year, the students have been involved in this kind of health fair,” Mathew said. “The main aim of this class is to increase, or enhance, their awareness regarding community health programs … because they are going to be the future health leaders.”

Clinical Associate Professor Nancy Nadeau said UTRGV’s nursing program is doing well. The last graduating class had a Texas RN pass rate of 92.48 percent. In comparison, the average for Texas programs is 89.77 percent and the national average is 86.94 percent, according to the 2017 Texas Board of Nursing Examination Report.

Each student has been prepared for the health fair and helped within the community by doing three to four home visits as part of the program. The program has prepared for the event in other ways. Home visits are conducted in the community in which the health fair will be held.

Nadeau said another course goal is for students to learn about collaborating in a community.

“We also interact with a lot of the programs in the university, with the [physician assistant] programs, the nurse practitioners programs,” Garza said. “We have a lot of their students as well, come in and participate in the health fair.”

Local corporations and agencies helped fund the event. The program raised an estimated $3,500.

Class members are still looking for volunteers, who do not need to be a nursing major or have any type of training.

The volunteers’ education will determine what they will be assigned to assist with.

For more information or to volunteer, email nursing senior Juan Rodriguez Lopez at juan.rodriguezlopez@utrgv.edu or Garza at roberto.r.garza01@utrgv.edu.