Students from GCU’s College of Nursing visited the Arizona Recreation Center for the Handicapped on Thursday for the second successive year, performing health and wellness screenings for about 50 of the center’s clients.
Under the supervision of Assistant Professor Sherri Spicer, about a dozen students took blood samples and administered hearing and vision tests. All are enrolled in NUR-411, a community-health course, and are able to count their work at ARCH toward a community-service requirement.
This year, increased emphasis was placed on one-on-one attention by the student nurses. The clients moved through several stations without any waiting.
“That helps reduce their fears,” said Marcus Edel, a former GCU baseball player and 2007 graduate of the University who now works as director of health and wellness at ARCH, which functions much like a YMCA for handicapped adults.
“They’ve been in and out of doctors’ offices, so we’re trying to make it relaxing for them,” Edel said.
Student nurse Erica Buchanan said a number of the clients have high cholesterol and body-mass-index numbers, as well as vision problems. Most do not have a primary-care physician.
“We can make a pretty full assessment from this,” Buchanan said.
Edel said that after the assessments are completed, ARCH will contact each client’s caregiver to report the results and offer recommendations for follow-up. He said he’d like to see the screenings done on a monthly basis, if it can be arranged.
“That way, we can better pinpoint the ones who need the extra help,” he said.
Kip Murray, ARCH’s executive director, raves about Edel’s efforts at the facility, which is near 15th Avenue and Colter Street in Phoenix, not far from campus.
“Marcus is a godsend,” Murray said. “He’s a go-getter and a self-starter. I don’t know if it’s him or his GCU education, but he puts things together so well for us. He can motivate people and get programs going.”
In a pinch, he’s also a go-to guy. When ARCH needed tables and chairs at the last minute for its recent prom, Edel used his connections at the University and came through with enough for 400.
“That’s his forte,” Murray said. “He connects so well with everybody.”
For more information about ARCH, go to http://archaz.org/.
