UMES health and wellness festival presenting health solutions to local community
PRINCESS ANNE, Md. – At the University of Maryland Eastern Shore, students gathered together for a health and wellness fair.
Wednesday they presented their solutions to those health issues to the local community. “So as a PA student, we are actually filling in the gaps right now. There’s a healthcare provider shortage, so we’re in there filling in the gaps and making sure that people are being seen,” said Laura Hassan, Physician Assistant Student.
Future Healthcare workers, Laura Hasan and Mitchel McDonald both presenting health-related information to community members. McDonald highlights studies surrounding weight loss. “Obesity is a major issue in America right now with climbing BMIs and more people obese than ever before. And preventative care is more important than anything than dealing with an issue that arises from obesity. So we’re just trying to attack it early before it becomes a major issue,” said McDonald.
McDonald says his research found more people are in need of knee replacements and ways to reduce stress on the joints, but he has some solutions. “So our goal with the HIIT workout is to show that you truly don’t need to dedicate over an hour of time for a workout a day, cause most people say that they don’t have time to workout. So we’re doing a slight course of five exercises, and once you complete that cycle, it should take about a minute and a half to 2 minutes,” said McDonald.
And event organizer, Dr. Lana Sherr says the annual event puts health information right back into the community where it’s needed. “So our goal for the community is to be educated about several diseases and receive the resources that they need to be part of taking care of their own health as well,” said Dr. Lana Sherr.
Students participating are in their first, second, or third year of grad school and the research doesn’t stop here. “I think next steps is trying to get more people into these types of roles so we can actually help the community with diseases that they’re now developing over time,” said Hassan.
At the event local businesses and vendors also shared a wealth of knowledge.
