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WIU Nursing Students Assisting with Health Fairs on Campus and in Fulton County

October 17, 2019

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MACOMB, IL – Senior students from the Western Illinois University School of Nursing will be helping with health fairs in Fulton County and at several campus locations.

The fairs are being held as part of a partnership between the WIU School of Nursing and the University of Illinois at Chicago's Library of the Heath Sciences in Peoria, IL (UIC-LHSP).

The campus health fairs including:
• Thursday, Oct. 31 – WIU Student Union Concourse – 10:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m.
• Monday, Nov. 7 – WIU Corbin/Olson Hall – 11 a.m.-1 p.m.
• Thursday, Nov. 7 – Spencer Student Recreation Center – 11 a.m.-2 p.m.
• Monday, Dec. 2 – Thompson Hall – 11 a.m.-1 p.m.

The Fulton County fairs include:
• Monday, Oct. 21 – Astoria Public Library District

• Thursday, Oct. 24 – Farmington Area Public Library District

• Monday, Oct. 28 – Parlin-Ingersoll Public Library in Canton

• Nov. 14 – Lewistown Carnegie Public Library District


All of the fairs are open to the public. Health screenings will be performed by student nurses and include blood pressure checks and BMI calculations. A librarian specializing in health information will be available to help fair attendees find reliable online resources to answer health-related questions.

WIU Associate Professor of Nursing Patricia Eathington said there is a great need for the HCFCI project in Fulton County.

"In 2018, a basic blood pressure clinic was provided by WIU School of Nursing students in a few of the small towns throughout Fulton County," she said. "During this experience, it was discovered that many small towns were eager to have the nursing students and many of the local businesses advertised the event through their Facebook pages. Another unexpected outcome of the blood pressure clinics was that many of the small-town residents asked for the nursing students to return to their town. They reported that they greatly appreciated their service and were glad that their small rural town was not forgotten."

This project has been funded in whole or in part with Federal funds from the National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services, under Grant Number 1UG4LM012346 with the University of Iowa.

For more information about the WIU School of Nursing, visit wiu.edu/cas/nursing.


Posted By: University Communications (U-Communications@wiu.edu)
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