Powered by Novant Health, HPU’s Student Health Services provides the foundation for a healthy campus.
Pictured above are Alicia Bouska and Rhys Wittenberg who have served HPU’s Student Health Services for a collective 17 years.
They’re the familiar faces of HPU’s Student Health Services, Alicia Bouska and Rhys Wittenberg.
Bouska, a physician assistant, has worked there for the past seven years; Wittenberg, a nurse practitioner, a decade. They’re both married, moms to three children, and they take to heart what they do.
They’ve treated students with care, and they’ve turned the clinic into a classroom. They’ve taught students how to advocate for their own health, and they’ve sent students follow-up text messages to make sure they’re OK.
Sometimes, parents call. Other times, Bouska and Wittenberg ask the student for the number and call themselves. Whatever happens, Bouska and Wittenberg appreciate the opportunity to speak with parents.
“I’m a mom, too,” they’ll say.
Their empathetic approach – and HPU’s Student Health Services – will become more visible this fall because of what everyone has come to know well – COVID-19.
HPU immediately started its response in March. HPU President Nido Qubein commissioned a Health and Safety Task Force that crafted a multi-pronged approach to mitigate the risk and to create a protocol that would provide a medical safety net for the sick and the well.
That approach includes a new student health center, a new full-time medical doctor, a new quarantine area and a slew of new precautions on campus – from mandating masks to requiring daily health checks through a monitoring app.
And of course, the many new visual cues. The #KEEPHPUHEALTHY signs are everywhere.
But that’s just the beginning.
One of the biggest components of HPU’s approach is the university’s ongoing partnership with Novant Health, a medical network headquartered in nearby Winston-Salem.
In 2019, Novant Health partnered with HPU to provide comprehensive wellness services for students, including orthopedic and sports medicine care for the university’s NCAA Division I athletes. In addition to the student wellness services, HPU and Novant Health have expanded clinical rotation availability for students majoring in different health care fields.
According to Wittenberg and Bouska, COVID-19 has only strengthened the partnership.
“Novant is a powerhouse,” says Bouska. “They have the right approach. The human approach.”
The human approach is nothing new at HPU. Ask any student who visited the student health center when they didn’t feel well.
They know.
Little Things That Count
Two years ago, Maddy Groff felt sick.
She went to Student Health Services, and Wittenberg helped her feel better. Then came the text afterward. Wittenberg wanted to make sure Groff was OK.
That meant much to Groff, a junior from Lancaster, Pennsylvania. She didn’t feel so alone seven hours from home.
“It makes me feel wanted and reassures me that there are people who really care about me and my health,” says Groff, a Siegfried Leadership Fellow majoring in human relations with a minor in business administration and leadership. “When you’re far from home and you don’t feel comfortable with a doctor around town, you need to know where to go, and I feel very comfortable with our student health center on campus.
“You walk there or call them during their off hours, and they’re there to help you.”
Inside Student Health Services is a sign above the desk of the clinic’s nurse, Susan Disher. It reads: “Nurses are God’s angels on Earth.”
Wittenberg learned that growing up in Nashville, Tennessee.
When she was young, she saw her maternal grandfather, Howard Akers, a family practitioner, as a mentor. She called him “Papo.”
He always encouraged her to pursue her education further and never stop learning. When she got older, he supported her when she got her master’s in nursing.
He gave her a few pieces of advice.
“He told me, ‘Don’t ever forget who you are and why you chose this profession because it’s not for the faint of heart, and remember it is the compassion and empathy you have for others that will carry you far.’
“‘And always do the right thing,” she says. “‘Make people feel how you would want to feel.’”
For Wittenberg, that advice made all the difference.
‘This, I knew, was what I wanted to do,” she says.
Bouska is familiar with that feeling,
She keeps in a file cabinet at the clinic a folder that contains emails and handwritten notes from students she’s treated. Each one has a story.
Take the senior from five years ago.
She came in for a cough, but Bouska saw something else. She had learned the importance of being observant after working at an urgent care clinic in nearby Greensboro for 15 years before coming to HPU.
She always looks for what she called the “zebra” in a herd of horses – or something that stands out.
She saw something very small on the senior’s neck, and she referred her to get it checked by a specialist. The senior did. She had thyroid cancer. It was caught early, and the senior is now cancer-free.
“If that was my daughter or if that was me in college, I would’ve wanted that,” Bouska says. “Just not to feel scared or alone. You want someone telling you, ‘You can get through this.’”
When the senior’s mother visited campus, she came to the clinic to see Bouska. The mother wanted to say thank you. The two hugged.
“It’s the little things, like the notes,” Bouska says. “That means so much to me. That made all the difference.”
HPU’s Commitment to Student Health
The new clinic for Student Health Services opened Aug. 1. It’s easy to find.
It sits catty-corner to the Nido and Mariana Qubein Arena and Conference Center, and students can get there via an HPU shuttle equipped with a protective barrier and designed specifically for transmitting students with respiratory symptoms. The shuttle is disinfected between each use.
When they come, students will find a new health center at least four times the size of the old health center.
It’s shaped like an L with two entrances – a blue entrance for well students and a green entrance for students with acute illness or COVID-19 symptoms. It covers 6,500 square feet and gives the center’s 10-member staff the room, equipment and peace of mind when treating any student.
The clinic has seven exam rooms, the staff have personal protective equipment to wear and students can be tested onsite for COVID-19.
If students test positive, HPU has established a quarantine area and contact tracing protocols to keep students and their peers safe.
The team includes Dr. Travis Howell, physician executive with Novant Health’s Community Health & Wellness Institute; and Dr. David Priest, infectious disease specialist, senior vice president and chief safety and quality officer for Novant Health.
Dr. Howell believes the new student health center is the epitome of HPU’s commitment to addressing the total health needs of students during the transformative years of their college experience.
“This new physical facility offers space to evaluate sick students, care for well students, continue and augment the care plans of the students’ home provider and gives us the ability to evolve to meet the future needs of the campus,” he said. “The Novant Health medical team provides excellent full spectrum care on site and has access to our network of experts, specialists and local acute care facilities when students need higher levels of assistance.”
Howell reminds students that while this year is different, HPU has created an environment in which they can thrive.
“More than ever, the key to ensuring continuation of your unique HPU experience is self-care, care for your fellow students through respectful and informed decision making, and use of the tremendous resources at your disposal,” he says.
‘I’m Counting On You’
As for HPU and its actions, start with the online letter parents received in May from Gail Tuttle.
She’s the senior vice president for HPU’s Office of Student Life, and in her 20-paragraph letter, Tuttle was compassionate and direct.
In her letter, she wrote: “We are committed to helping students navigate complex situations like this one.”
In an interview, she said: “People need to be affirmed and listened to. I don’t take that for granted. Parents have entrusted us with their children.”
On her phone, she keeps Dr. Howell’s number on speed dial.
“They are our experts,” she says. “That’s who we lean on.”
To help educate students on what they need to do, HPU has recruited what they call HPU Health Heroes. This on–campus group models health behavior for their peers, such as mask wearing and physical distancing, and provides positive reinforcement for those who follow safety protocols, too.
The HPU Health Heroes are many. Do the numbers. As of Aug. 27, there are 58 faculty members, 74 members and 196 students who are Health Heroes. Grand total: 328 Health Heroes at HPU – and that number is expected to grow.
And of course, that group includes the man students call Dr. Q – HPU President Dr. Nido Qubein.
“No challenge is too difficult, too hard for us,” Qubein says in a video to students. “You’re important to all of us here, and we’ll do everything we can to balance your classroom learning with your health and safety.
“But you must do your part, too. Of course, I know you will. You’re responsible citizens with civility and respect. So, I’m counting on you.”
He’s talking to more than 5,000 students and their families. Incoming freshmen Elizabeth Kleinknecht and Sarah Fernandez Bravo are two.
Life Lessons in a Pandemic
Bravo grew up in nearby Greensboro, and Kleinknecht hails from Atlanta. They both spent a month on campus in July with Summer Advantage, HPU’s program that gives freshmen a jumpstart on college.
They wore a mask everywhere, they kept hand sanitizer in their backpack, and they sat in classes rearranged for physical distancing.
They got used to it, and they understood why – to keep them and others safe. They both say they feel safe at HPU. It’s because of what they see around them – people in masks and health stations that take your temperature, as well as physical distancing signs and hand sanitizers everywhere they look.
“With everything so visual,” Kleinknecht says, “it reminds you that if you can do your part, you can help others.”
“We’re all in this together,” Bravo says. “It’s not just taking care of yourself but taking care of your neighbor.”
Sam Carr, SGA’s new president, understands that, too.
He is part of the university’s Health and Safety Task Force, which includes top administrators and faculty. They started meeting every week in March. Now, they have a daily call.
Carr represents what Tuttle calls “a student voice of reason.” Today, when Carr steps on campus, he thinks of one thing: We are safe.
“We’re ready,” he says. “The university has taken the steps necessary for us to live relatively normal. Everyone knows this is not a normal time, but HPU has gone above and beyond to make it relatively normal for us students.”
‘It’s Good Medicine’
With the semester now underway, Bouska and Wittenberg find themselves putting up snapshots of their kids in a new place. Still, it feels very much the same.
New space. Same mission. Same team. Same empathetic approach.
“We have the best resources, the best leadership from Dr. Priest and Dr. Howell, and we have a great team,” Wittenberg says. “Most of us have been together for the past five years. We can depend on each other.”
Wittenberg calls their new spot “our home away from home.”
Bouska sees it as something else.
“To get something big like this in this day and age of privacy, this is a great solution that will serve our future really well,” she says. “It’s good medicine.”