On Saturday, October 28th from 12:00pm-3:00pm, two IPE PoD students and Mischler IPE Scholarship awardees, Claudia “Dia” Miller (TBSN 2nd year) and Alankrit Shatadal (MD 2nd year) arranged for a Human Health Fair to take place at WisCARES (link to their website). According to their website, “Wisconsin Companion Animal Resources, Education, and Social Services (WisCARES) is a University of Wisconsin program that provides basic veterinary medical care, housing support and advocacy, and other support services to Dane County pet owners who are low income, currently experiencing or are at risk of homelessness, as well as those who are unable to pay for veterinary medical services needed for access to housing.”
Dia and Alankrit were able to use their Mischler scholarship to help fund the Human Health Fair to offer services such as flu shots, blood pressure screening, and know your numbers information. The goal of the fair was to build trust in human health care offerings for clients who bring their pets in for care. Although for the Human Health Fair, clients were asked to keep their pets at home. Students from Medicine, Nursing, and Pharmacy all participated in the fair, as well as faculty from each of these programs.
Advisors to Dia and Alankrit included Ruthanne Chun, DVM, DACVIM; Jamie Hess, MD; Leah Kechele, DNP; and WisCARES staff Kelly Schultz, DVM, Medical Director, Veterinarian and Clinical Instructor, and Jennifer Brooks, Director of Social Work and Outreach.
Dia and Alankrit will continue their project by creating a video on Health Literacy/ Reducing Health Anxiety to be shared on the WisCARES website among other places. Other interested PoD students have the opportunity to work with Dia and Alankrit to help develop the video, as well as students who want to continue the work with WisCARES to plan future health fairs or develop additional resources.
