Health

This course introduces the philosophical and scientific foundations of professional nursing. Students examine historical foundations of the nursing profession and scientific processes and frameworks underlying nursing theory and practice. Exploration of concepts in the nursing discipline builds knowledge and understanding essential to the provision of holistic patient care across the lifespan. Emphasis is on development of professionalism, use of critical thinking, and evidence-based practice.

ACE Component: Students implement a one-time project/activity at the Northfield Head Start.

Students examine social, psychological and biological aspects of aging within the context of holistic nursing. Application of knowledge and skills using gerontological principles for prevalent health problems experienced by older adults is emphasized. The course incorporates instruction and feedback for developing oral communication through the practice of interpersonal communication skills. Clinical experiences focus on elder care in a variety of community settings.

ACE Component: Students practice therapeutic communications skills with clients at local long-term care facilitites, producing a final client for their residents (letter, journal entry, etc.) based on their dialogue.

Public health nursing is informed by community needs and environmental factors focusing on health promotion and disease prevention. Through project management, students address the health needs of groups and communities utilizing group communication processes, teamwork, and collaboration. Students focus on utilizing community resources, identifying risk factors, and evaluating the impact on population health as related to current epidemiological trends.

ACE Component: Students prepare presentations on puberty and adolescent concerns for 5th and 6th graders at Medford Public Schools. In addition, students help coordinate and facilitate county employee health fairs in Rice and Steele Counties.

Students synthesize knowledge and apply evidence-based practice in the care and management of clients experiencing a major psychiatric and/or mental health disorder. Emphasis will be placed on the role of the professional nurse in various treatment settings as well as current treatment modalities. The client population includes children, adolescents, and adults along the health-illness continuum.

ACE Component: Students conduct an educational presentation on a behavioral health topic to the nurses at their clinical site.

This course emphasizes the health of communities and populations. Topics include population-based health issues such as environmental health, epidemiology and communicable diseases. Students assess and screen individuals and families within communities, address identified needs and educate populations across the lifespan, collaborate with other health care professionals, make referrals, and participate in health promotion clinics. Clinical experiences occur in rural public health agencies, community-based programs, and simulation.

Students analyze mechanical principles in depth as they affect human motion. Topics include study of muscular and skeletal systems, skill analysis, and motion measurement techniques. The course includes a laboratory component.

ACE Component: Students will work in pairs to conduct a Gait Analysis (recording, analyzing, and recommendations) on members from the St. Olaf community.

Students study in-depth the physiology of exercise, covering cardiovascular and muscular adaptions to exercise and factors affecting performance, including body composition, environmental influences, training implications across gender and age, and the assessment of fitness. The course includes a laboratory component. Offered annually. Counts toward neuroscience concentration. Prerequisite: junior standing and BIO 143 and BIO 243 or permission of instructor.

ACE Component: Students will offer free baseline measurements to the great St. Olaf community (faculty, staff, and students). During the process, participants will receive not only the measurements, but information about the measurement testing and suggestions for how to improve their health based on their individual measurements.

This class is a good example of the connection of theory to practice as students translate classroom learning into real-world experience by serving as teachers, where faculty and staff become their students.  The exercise prescription course was designed to give senior exercise science majors the opportunity to utilize their skills in prescribing exercise regimens to “clients”.  This would be very similar to what a physical therapist, occupational therapist, or personal trainer would do.  The clients are chosen from the St. Olaf community (faculty and staff, not students).  Each exercise science major is assigned two clients for the entire semester.  The client is assessed on numerous factors (e.g., strength, endurance, flexibility, nutrition, blood pressure, body composition) at the beginning of the semester.  The student then prescribes exercise regimens and offers dietary advice to the clients for 12 weeks.  The client participates in the same testing at the end of the semester (and the results are fantastic).  The potential benefits to members of the St. Olaf community include increased workplace wellness and reduced medical and insurance claims.  The students gain a sense of accomplishment and fulfillment as they integrate and utilize course material in a real-world setting.

This course is a service/learning experience. Week one is spent on campus learning basic clinical techniques, examining emerging disease, and studying existing health care issues. Students spend three weeks in Cuzco, Peru, assessing patient needs in a public hospital, a homeless shelter, orphanages, and a small village. Week four involves discussion and writing reflective journals.

Students created cost-benefit analysis videos for Health Finders, a local nonprofit agency that provides free and sliding scale care for members of the Northfield community. The students researched statistics on Heath Finders and put those statistics into an analytical argument promoting the cost-effectiveness of Health Finders.

This is a study abroad course taught at various locations in India. This course explores childhood and family life in modern India through site visits, observations, lectures, and readings, addressing questions such as: How does India’s unique history and culture, population growth, and economic development affect parenting practices, children’s self-concept, relationships, and education? How do adolescents in India understand and experience gender roles and the transition to adulthood? How do Indian psychologists and social workers integrate traditional and contemporary approaches in this religiously and linguistically diverse nation? The academic civic engagement component of this course is theoretical rather than applied. Students visit field sites in Chennai where they learn about internships being conducted by Indian social work students from Madras Christian College. Students also visit several non-governmental organizations (NGO’s) in Bangalore and learn about these programs. The month of study/travel also provides daily opportunities to consider what we can learn about ourselves by studying these issues in this important South Asian nation.

This course integrates on-campus classroom activities with service-learning placements.  Readings, classroom discussions, and assignments highlight the unique theoretical perspectives, skills, and methods that psychologists use to address social problems and community needs through research, practice, and policy.  Onsite experiences within the community provide opportunities for the application of previous coursework as well as guided written reflection about and exploration of students’ personal and vocational development.

Students explore service to human beings as a profession, a vocation, and a volunteer commitment. Who needs help? Who helps? Where? How? What motivates people to help? Using the liberal arts as a foundation for helping people, students study career opportunities in areas such as health care, social services, ministry, youth work, and the arts. The class includes lectures, discussions, speakers, and field visits. The civic engagement component of the class varies from year-to-year.  In 2014-15, students experienced different shadowing opportunities with the Cedar House in Faribault, ate lunch with clients as a way of promoting healthy relationships, & then met as a large group to debrief. The class also went to the Community Action Center where we met with the Housing Specialist & learned about transitional housing options and needs in Northfield.

Social work majors study the methods and skills of social work practice, particularly intercultural communication. They describe strengths and problems of diverse individuals and families; frame goals and plans for change utilizing the planned change process and the systems perspective; and use ethical decision-making, informed by the scientific method, grounded in the liberal arts, and concerned with social justice.The story-partners project pairs students with an older community member residing at the Northfield Retirement Center. Students meet with their partner 6-8 times throughout the course of the semester for the specific purpose of encouraging their partners to tell stories about their lives. Students practice what they have learned through role-playing in class such as active listening and asking clarifying questions, which helps to build their one-on-one conversation and interviewing skills. The volunteer participants gain an enthusiastic listener, validation for their experiences, and the opportunity to reflect upon their lives, furthermore students demonstrate learning in recorded role playing and have an academic civic engagement experience.

Social work majors continue to study the methods and skills of generalist practice. They assess strengths and problems of diverse groups, organizations, and communities and use the systems perspective to help client systems frame goals and plans for social change. Students scientifically assess macrosystems and develop plans for implementing change that are reflective, scientific, just, and grounded in the liberal arts. This course includes a community engagement project. As part of this course, in 2014-15 students worked with Rice County Mental Health Collective to interview youth-serving organizations. These interviews collected data on teaching of social-emotional skill building to youth who participate in these programs. The ACE component in 2018 included a housing survey and analysis for the League of Women Voters under the supervision of faculty member Lisa Moore.

For the civic engagement component of this course, students tour the American Indian Center in Minneapolis to learn about what the center does and the community it serves. Students also participate in a powwow by serving food at a community feast and observing as part of the audience.