A Health Advocate is a student appointed as a health resource in his or her residence hall or apartment community, fraternity, or sorority. Health Advocates attend weekly classes at the student health service, where they are specially trained to respond to common health-related issues. They share information and prevention strategies with other students in their hall or house and also refer students to other health resources on campus.
Health Services
University of Wisconsin-Madison (UWM), with more than 42,000 students, experienced a surge of H1N1 cases in fall 2009. The University Health Services (UHS) clinic is normally staffed by an on-call clinician on Labor Day, yet the flood of phone calls from sick and worried students overwhelmed the one staff member. Due to the rush of calls, the clinic was compelled to open with the assistance of physicians who volunteered to begin screening and treating students before the semester began.
During the 2009 H1N1 outbreak, ill students living in on-campus housing posed a special concern for the University of Iowa (UI). The Office of Residence Life focused many of their efforts on training Resident Assistants (RAs) to respond appropriately to ill students living in their halls.
This recommendations document was developed to provide education and guidance on the use of personal protective equipment (PPE) for H1N1 pandemic influenza in the face of confusing, and sometimes conflicting, guidance from federal agencies. Although questions about use of PPE surfaced early among some of our colleagues, the need to have clear and specific guidelines became evident as University of Minnesota (U of M) planners reviewed the quantities of stockpiled equipment they had available, as well as limited resources related to appropriate individual fit-testing for respirators.
