“Questions of the Week” is part of a weekly series in which Daily reporter Nina Fox interviews a prominent person in the Iowa State and Ames communities. To suggest a person for her to interview, send an e-mail request to [email protected].

This week’s interview is with Mark Blaedel, interim director for the Student Health Center.

What do you do as interim director of Student Health Center?

Specifically, I mind over the function of this area. We have two main functions, one is providing clinical medical services … and the second thing that we do is prevention, education and outreach.

And the third thing, since we are employed by the students, unlike most other areas of the university, we [are] paid directly by the mandatory student health fees. One of my jobs is to make sure the students get good value.

What are your goals this year for the health center?

One of my goals this year is to increase the effectiveness of our Public Education and Outreach Program. Right now, we contribute less than 3 percent of our budget to that program.

Another one is to increase our presence in the community. The last thing I ever want the Student Health Center to be thought of is insular. We are part of the Student Affairs family … and our only mission here is to support the student as he or she pursues their academic roles. So [our goal is] to let the people know that we are present in the community, and that we are a part of community.

We’ve done a couple things in this last year. We’ve shown our interest in community participation. One is bringing the WIC [Women, Infants and Children] Clinic here. This is a clinic for low-income folks who’ve had children and are having a hard time affording services for their babies.

A third goal is to strengthen SHAC, which is the Student Health Advisory Committee. That’s students that are interested in health careers.

The fourth goal I have is to improve the Web site. Eventually, what I’d love is a users’ manual online, so you can look up how to make an appointment or want to know hours or why they have to pay for a mandatory health fee.

How many students on average come in to the Student Health Center per year?

I’d probably have to say that in a year, two-thirds or three-fourths of the student body come in for something or another, whether it’s getting measles shot or wanting to come in to use the Wellness Center for a fitness evaluation.

We actually see, between our nurse visits and our physician visits, 40,000 contacts a year.

Tell me about the staff here at the Health Center.

We’re understaffed. Well, we normally have eight full-time equivalents of providers seeing patients while I’ve been interim director.

Sometimes we suffer under the name “Student Death,” and that’s fine. We can handle that. When the student is finally happy with the services, they’ll call it something else.

I think it is important to know of the providers we have, everyone is board certified. We are all in the prime in our professional lives.

What is First Nurse?

Let me give you an example. It’s 2 o’clock in the morning, and your roommate is drunk out of her mind, and you’re scared ’cause you can’t wake her up. We’re closed, and you don’t know if you have to take her down to the emergency room or what. You just wish you could talk to somebody that knew what to do.

You can call Student Health and automatically that call is going to roll over to First Nurse, which is a program administered through Mary Greeley.

So First Nurse is a cheap way of saying we’re open 24 hours a day. For us, it’s like having an employee on duty. First Nurse is a project of Mary Greeley, the MacFarland Clinic, Marshalltown Hospital.

Are there some tips you could give students for staying well during the winter season?

Three suggestions: exercise, eat well and get sleep.

Most of the students that we see [at Student Health] have at least a combination of these three problems that brings them here.

“Not eating right,” “too busy, I can’t eat now,” “not sleeping right, got to get this term paper in,” “I don’t have time to go to the rec” are frequent complaints. And in fact, college students are sleeping an hour less than they did 20 years ago.

Luckily, at this school a number of people are in the residence hall system, and they are at least exposed to good food. But it’s hard, for instance, if you’re in an apartment and you’re going home, it’s easier to stop at the Burger King.

A lot of people think they have to go pump iron, run 50 miles a week. The former surgeon general said 30 minutes of exercise every day or at least five days a week is all you need. And that can be walking from Towers to campus at a brisk rate instead of taking the bus or taking the stairs instead of the elevator.