Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Getting Off On The Right Foot: Addressing Severe Lymphedema Through A Novel Shoe Design, Carl R. Russell Iii, Anjollie M. Ramakrishna, Christopher H. Johns Iii, Alana V. Van Wijnen

Purdue Journal of Service-Learning and International Engagement

Engineering Projects in Community Service (EPICS) is a service-learning design program run by the College of Engineering at Purdue University. EPICS teaches students design skills by providing solutions for individuals, communities, and organizations in the surrounding area while mirroring engineering industry standards. Biomedical Engineering is a team within EPICS that strives to serve community partners through biomedical applications. HR is a patient who suffers from severe lymphedema. This condition results in her foot swelling three times its original size and requires her to utilize weekly leg compression therapy. Prescription shoes are slightly adequate. However, they lead to sores and pain …

Working Out The Kinks: Creating Solutions To Assist Health Care Workers To Take Vital Signs Through Effective Cable Management, Carl R. Russell Iii, Emily J. Linder, Maya A. Godbole

Purdue Journal of Service-Learning and International Engagement

EPICS (Engineering Projects in Community Service) is a service-learning design program run through Purdue University. It strives to teach students design skills through providing solutions for individuals, communities, and organizations in the surrounding area while mirroring engineering industry standards. BME (Bio-medical Engineering) is a team within EPICS that strives to serve community partners through biomedical applications. Members of a health care team often spend valuable time organizing cables associated with machines used to take patients’ vital signs. Due to time constraints and the fast-paced work environment, these cables may be mismanaged and damaged. The BME team is working on a …

Purdue College Of Pharmacy's Response To The Hand Sanitizer Shortage During The Pandemic, Alissa M. Freimuth, Alicia S. Cheng, Rurie W. Lee, Nicole L. Noel, Trexie M. Rudd, Jane E. Krause

Purdue Journal of Service-Learning and International Engagement

With the outbreak of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), came struggles and hardships that were not foreseen. One of these struggles was to maintain an adequate supply of medical equipment, medications, and other necessities to help protect individuals and communities. Proper hand hygiene is an important part of the response to COVID-19. Sanitizing and taking steps to prevent contraction of COVID-19 was a high priority and with the high demand, the availability of hand sanitizer was scare.

In March 2020, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released a policy allowing pharmacists to temporarily compound alcohol-based hand sanitizer during the public …

Homelessness And Covid-19, Justin Macneill, Alexa Lahey, Nina Teo

Purdue Journal of Service-Learning and International Engagement

The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the struggle of people experiencing homelessness (PEH) and presented new challenges to those serving this vulnerable population. To better understand and articulate how COVID has impacted both PEH and their ecosystem of support, we compared the national response - aggregated via a literature review of both gray and academic literature - to the statewide response in Indiana and the local response in Tippecanoe County.

Local homelessness providers emphasized that organizational partnerships are key - policy changes in one organization can have malignant effect extending throughout and putting additional strain on other organizations within the local …

Service-Learning In The Virtual Space: Mixed Method Analysis Of Steps Pipeline Program, Katherine Ceglio, Julianne Stout

Purdue Journal of Service-Learning and International Engagement

North Central Indiana Area Health Education Center (NCI-AHEC) aims to develop the healthcare infrastructure by encouraging rural students to pursue healthcare professions. In light of rural healthcare shortages found in Indiana, they implemented a pipeline program, Successfully Training and Educating Pre-medical Students (STEPS). This program offers mentoring and educational assistance to pre-health-professional undergraduate students at Indiana University – Kokomo. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Purdue research team partnered with NCI-AHEC to conduct a completely virtual mixed method study that examined the initial impact of the STEPS program and made recommendations for improvement.

The opportunities for virtual collaboration created during the …

From There To Here: Evaluating The Transition Of An International Advanced Pharmacy Practice Experience In London, Ishmum Hasan, Stephanie Hendricks, Michaela Todd, Grace Yun, Sotiris Antoniou, Monica Miller, Ellen Schellhase, Alexandra Van-Slageren

Purdue Journal of Service-Learning and International Engagement

Purdue University College of Pharmacy offers an international advanced pharmacy practice experience (APPE) in London, England, where student pharmacists have the opportunity to work with pharmacy specialists at St. Bartholomew’s Hospital. The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly impacted travel across the world and created the need to transition this experience from in-person to virtual.

Virtual interaction with international preceptors and revised research and clinical activities can provide students with a valuable learning experience.

Hair Care Catered To You, Sarah Reynolds, Meg Sorg

Purdue Journal of Service-Learning and International Engagement

People of color face barriers in healthcare every day, and my goal was to address one of these barriers. Healthcare settings stock products that are tailored for Caucasian hair and skin, so I wanted to add products targeted for Black patients' skin and hair. I added shampoo and lotion to the supply closet of Peyton Manning Children's Hospital as well as bonnets and durags for the patients to wrap their hair in to protect it while they sleep or rest. African American hair and skin requires different care. This is something that often goes unnoticed by healthcare professionals, and I …

Laini Fluellen Charities And Know Your Lemons: Squeezing Out Breast Cancer And Winning The Fight, Kayla Vasilko

Purdue Journal of Service-Learning and International Engagement

Each minute, a woman dies from breast cancer somewhere in the world. The first and most important tool a woman needs to have to win a fight against this disease is the education to identify breast cancer symptoms as early as possible. Laini Fluellen Charities, Inc. (LFC) is an organization dedicated to aiding women in the fight of triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC), a highly aggressive form of breast cancer that characteristically affects young women, has fewer treatment options, and results in lower survival rates overall. Laini Fluellen combats TNBC by representing those most disproportionally affected: young African American and Hispanic …

Pharmacy Students As Volunteer Medical Staff For American Diabetes Association Summer Camp, Emily Harvath

Purdue Journal of Service-Learning and International Engagement

For children living with a diagnosis of diabetes, com-munity support and education about proper disease management are critical for the mental and physical health of the child and their family. The experiences offered at summer camps hosted by the American Diabetes Association address both of these needs for the pediatric diabetes community. These camps provide children with the opportunity to participate in a traditional camp experience—swimming, rock climbing, tubing, and more—while giving parents peace of mind in the knowledge that their child’s diabetes will be closely monitored by a team of health care professionals. During my time as volunteer medical …

Student Pharmacists’ Response To A Pandemic: Service-Learning Through Contact Tracing, Antoinette Martin, William Harris, Alexander Szu-Wei Chao, Caroline Blankemeier, Diane Hobbs, Emily Hall, Emily Harvath, Madilyn Eberle, Monica L. Miller, Rakhi Karwa

Purdue Journal of Service-Learning and International Engagement

In March 2020, the SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) pandemic disrupted education nationwide. To safely deliver in-person classes, Purdue University contracted One-to-One Health, creating the Protect Purdue Health Center (PPHC). The PPHC was a central location for information, testing, and case management for Purdue students, staff, faculty and their dependents. Contact tracing is a proven public health measure that has been utilized to control the spread of infectious diseases by identifying and isolating potential active cases. The communicative nature of contact tracing, along with its need for clinical decision-making skills makes the student pharmacist an ideal candidate for aiding in this pandemic response. …

A Community Health Initiative: Health To The Power Of You, Stephanie Hendricks

Purdue Journal of Service-Learning and International Engagement

In April 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic impacted the number of visits to ambulatory care practices and was reported to have declined by nearly 60%. The extent of this decline is alarming as outpatient visits help manage chronic diseases in patients, such as diabetes, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol. This trend sparked an interest in pharmacist and student pharmacist, Dr. Cynthia Koh-Knox Sharp and Stephanie Hendricks, respectively, as it offered an opportunity to help serve the Greater Lafayette community. We created Health to the Power of You (Health^You), which targets two of Lafayette’s neglected populations: community members experiencing …

Adapting Global Service-Learning Project And Community Partnership Outcomes Using A “Tele-Engineering” Approach In Response To The Covid-19 Pandemic, Christiane Ley, Danielle Angert, Tessa Hudelson, Jordan Harris

Purdue Journal of Service-Learning and International Engagement

The Water Supply in Developing Countries (WSDC) service-learning course at Purdue University has fostered a strong partnership with the La Vega region in the Dominican Republic since 2012. During this time, an interdisciplinary group of engineering and science students has helped design drinking water treatment systems and the group has developed water, sanitation, and health (WASH) education materials. These WASH education and water safety approaches often have been conducted in person in the past. However, with the state of the COVID-19 pandemic and the inability to travel in the fall and spring semesters of the 2020–2021 academic year, the students …

Creating Reel Designs: Reflecting On Arthrogryposis Multiplex Congenita In The Community, Iris Layadi

Purdue Journal of Service-Learning and International Engagement

Because of its extreme rarity, the genetic disease arthrogryposis multiplex congenita (AMC) and the needs of individuals with the diagnosis are often overlooked. AMC refers to the development of nonprogressive contractures in disparate areas of the body and is characterized by decreased flexibility in joints, muscle atrophy, and developmental delays. Colton Darst, a seven-year-old boy from Indianapolis, Indiana, was born with the disorder, and since then, he has undergone numerous surgical interventions and continues to receive orthopedic therapy to reduce his physical limitations. His parents, Michael and Amber Darst, have hopes for him to regain his limbic motion and are …

In The Pursuit Of Assistance: A Team's Desire To Not Let A Congenital Amputation Get In A Young Boy's Way, Carl Russell Iii, Gavin Loucks, Kirsten Wozniak

Purdue Journal of Service-Learning and International Engagement

EPICS is a service-learning design program run through Purdue University. It strives to teach students design skills through providing for individuals, communities, and organizations in the surrounding area while mirroring engineering industry standards. BME (Biomedical Engineering) is a team within EPICS that strives to serve community partners through biomedical applications. William Sevick is an elementary school student with a congenital arm amputation. William and his family have been working with the BME team for the past three years designing assistive devices with the purpose of improving his actions in daily life such as eating, playing games, and riding his bike.

Purdue College Of Pharmacy Experience With Blood Pressure Screenings At The Indiana State Fair, Samuel L. Stukey, Emily B. Vahary, Allison M. Kenneally, Casey J. Bernier, Bruce C. Carlstedt, Jane E. Krause

Purdue Journal of Service-Learning and International Engagement

The objective of this community outreach initiative is to develop and implement a student-led blood pressure screening at the Indiana State Fair in conjunction with the Purdue College of Pharmacy and the Hook’s Drug Store Museum. Under the mentorship of two pharmacy faculty members, third- and fourth-year professional PharmD students and pharmacy fellows hold a nine-hour blood pressure screening at the Indiana State Fair each year. The screening is held at the Hook’s Drug Store Museum and the students and fellows sign-up in teams of 3-4 to host the event. Fair-goers visiting the screening have their blood pressure taken using …

Global Air Quality Trekkers: Nandi Clean Kitchen Study, Samantha Dykhuis, Stephanie Schiavo, Avalin Senefeld

Purdue Journal of Service-Learning and International Engagement

Indoor air pollution is a widespread environmental health challenge sub-Saharan Africa and is the leading cause of premature death in many sub-Saharan African countries. This pollution is primarily caused by the burning of biomass fuels inside an enclosed kitchen in order to provide heat for cooking. Global Air Quality Trekkers is an undergraduate engineering team within the EPICS department at Purdue that began in fall 2016. Our objective is to create a kitchen design that utilizes natural ventilation to mitigate the amount of air pollutants present in these kitchens, specifically in the Nandi community of Western Kenya. This year, our …

The Boilerworx Project: Mobile Public Health Advocacy, Carolanne Wartman, Kevin Fekete, Fatima Khan, Carrie Kovacik, Carol Ott, Nicole Noel, Catherine Scott

Purdue Journal of Service-Learning and International Engagement

BoilerWoRx is a mobile health initiative that was created in response to Indiana's opioid public health crisis. This College of Pharmacy program is multidisciplinary with students from engineering, nursing, liberal arts, and medicine. BoilerWoRx offers education to both students and community members. There is a comprehensive training for students who volunteer with the BoilerWoRx team, which include various educational Ted Talks, naloxone training, along with assessment tool trainings. For the community members at the events, drug disposal kits, wellness education, syringe service assistance, naloxone distribution, mental health assessments, and community resources are available.

Currently, BoilerWoRx is working with engineering students …

Student Pharmacists Bridging The Gap With Community Partnerships: Purdue University College Of Psychiatric And Neurologic Pharmacists Chapter, Fatima A. Khan, Elise M. Mann

Purdue Journal of Service-Learning and International Engagement

The CPNP Purdue chapter is a student organization that strives to advance mental health awareness and education, reduce stigma, and volunteer in the local community. CPNP Purdue is strengthened by collaboration with partner organizations, including the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) and Home with Hope, a Lafayette-based recovery housing center. NAMI advocates for effective treatment and education for families affected by mental illness in the surrounding community. Home with Hope provides a continuum of care and environment conducive to recovery following treatment for substance use disorders. These nonprofit partnerships rely heavily upon volunteers, donations, and advocates to provide services …

Singing Through Change: A Community Engagement Project For Women In Recovery Performing With The Purdue Fort Wayne Choral Union Choir, Madison Boyden

Purdue Journal of Service-Learning and International Engagement

Hope & Harriet is an intensive residential treatment program in a subacute medical facility for women 18 years and older that specializes in the pursuit of recovery from chemical dependency. PFW music therapy students have been given the unique opportunity to work with the women as part of their music therapy clinical practicum experiences. The author's final music therapy practicum, in partial fulfillment of her bachelor’s degree in music therapy, began her path forward into this project.

Unused Medication Collection: An Emerging Service-Learning Experience For Pharmacy Students, Anne E. Packard, Maryam Noureldin, A. Carmine Colavecchia, Patricia L. Darbishire, Jennifer Colavecchia

Purdue Journal of Service-Learning and International Engagement

While the U.S. makes up around 5% of the world’s population, we consume approximately 75% of the world’s prescription drugs—well over 4 billion prescriptions per year. Approximately one third of those are never used, creating an array of public health challenges. These challenges include land and water pollution; unintentional inappropriate use and unintentional human, pet, and wildlife poisonings; and intentional drug abuse and diversion. Misuse of prescription drugs now exceeds that of all illegal drugs combined. Reducing the number of medications prescribed is of primary importance, as well as collecting unnecessary medications from households and disposing of them through environmentally …

The Role Of The Pharmacy Team In Atrial Fibrillation Detection In Nonclinical Settings, Brian C. Hazelrigg, Monica L. Miller, Sotiris Antoniou, Jagjot Chahal, Sadeer Fhadil

Purdue Journal of Service-Learning and International Engagement

Atrial Fibrillation (AF) is a common cardiac/heart disease that increases a person’s risk of death, making early identification significant in overall disease management. Throughout my time in pharmacy school, I [Brian] have developed an interest in cardiology and research. During my last year of pharmacy school, I spent eight weeks at St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, in London, England, one of the largest cardiac centers within Europe, on an experiential training experience. While there, I had the opportunity to study specifics about many cardiac illnesses, with a focus on atrial fibrillation, and provide education to patients living with this disease. In addition …

Finding Harmony In Health For Treating Addiction: Support For Women In Recovery Through Music Therapy, Molly Rea

Purdue Journal of Service-Learning and International Engagement

Molly Rea is a senior music therapy student at Purdue University who is minoring in psychology and holds an Associate of Science in Liberal Arts degree from Ivy Tech Community College. She has gained clinical experience over the past three years by bringing music therapy to individual, nursing home, hospital, and group rehabilitation settings. She aspires to open and manage an integrative holistic healthcare clinic to address needs of individuals living in disadvantaged communities where mental health resources are scarce. Her passion lies in mental health awareness and she hopes to address conditions such as depression, anxiety, addiction, and suicide …

Safe Medication Disposal In Underserved Communities, Elaina Etter

Purdue Journal of Service-Learning and International Engagement

Of the 130 Americans who will die each day from opioid overdose, 46 will have overdosed on prescription opioid medications. The opioid epidemic has become one of our nation’s largest public health crises. Because many individuals may have access to prescription medications of family members or friends, responsible medication disposal has become increasingly important to prevent harm.

This fall, I worked on a professional project at local Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs), which aimed to increase education about safe medication disposal. These clinics provide comprehensive healthcare services to underserved patients, many of whom live in rural areas or have limited …

Sharing The Gift Of Water: A Hoosier-Haitian Partnership, Lauren Ward

Purdue Journal of Service-Learning and International Engagement

Engagement Methods for International Food Security (YDAE 49100) provided an opportunity for enrolled students to travel abroad to Cap-Haitïen, Haiti. As both a course in agriculture and a service-learning study abroad, the overarching goal was to inspire, engage, and teach Purdue and Haitian students through service learning in agriculture. This was done by developing a project with teammates during the fall semester that was then presented to students in Haiti during the International Agri-Symposium at Université Antenor Firmin over winter break.

Nurse Practitioner Students: Providing Wellness Screenings To Underserved Older Adults, Rexanna Tatlock

Purdue Journal of Service-Learning and International Engagement

Rexanna Tatlock (BSN, RN, CCRN) received a BSN from Saint Francis College in 2003. As a registered nurse, she specialized in critical care nursing and eventually enrolled in the Adult Gerontology Nurse Practitioner master’s program in Purdue University’s School of Nursing in 2016. Upon graduation in May 2018, Rexanna has planned to focus on primary health care. The service-learning project provided primary care clinical experience, while meeting the needs of an underserved older adult population. This article will discuss the community partnership, a needs assessment, and a wellness screening offered to Fairington Apartments (FA) residents.

My Experience In Swaziland With Give Hope, Fight Poverty, Megan Kaser

Purdue Journal of Service-Learning and International Engagement

Megan Kaser, a recent 2017 alum in the College of Health and Human Sciences at Purdue University, describes her experience with Give Hope, Fight Poverty (GHFP)—a nonprofit organization in Indianapolis, Indiana. She is currently pursuing a master’s degree in physician assistant studies. GHFP’s mission is “to foster philanthropy domestically by designing service-learning programs that engage U.S. college students with rural communities in Swaziland, Africa, and work together to educate, empower, and lift orphaned and vulnerable children—particularly those living in child-headed households— out of poverty” (Give Hope, Fight Poverty, n.d.). By incorporating college students in the implementation of GHFP orphan education …

The Pharmaceutical Industry: A Pharmacy Student's Guide, Christian Egly, Yaman Kaakeh

Purdue Journal of Service-Learning and International Engagement

Christian Egly is a fourth-year (P4) pharmacy student in the Purdue University College of Pharmacy. During his years at Purdue, he worked in labs performing bench research in clinical pharmacology and biochemistry. He plans to work in the pharmaceutical industry after graduation. During his fourth year, he completed rotations in business development at Kashiv Pharma, LLC, and was hired there for an internship in 2017. In the article, Christian describes his personal experiences at Kashiv Pharma, LLC, and how industry can positively affect patient communities.

Peer Health Educators On Campus: Teaching Safe Medication Practices, Baylee Q. Bryan, Olga O. Vlashyn, Stephanie A. Deremiah, Murphy K. O'Toole, Katherine M. Joseph, Jane E. Krause

Purdue Journal of Service-Learning and International Engagement

Baylee Q. Bryan, Olga O. Vlashyn, Stephanie A. Deremiah, and Murphy K. O’Toole are advanced professional students in the Doctor of Pharmacy program at Purdue University, graduating in May 2019. Katherine M. Joseph is a senior in the School of Nursing, graduating in December 2018. Jane E. Krause (Clinical Associate Professor of Pharmacy Practice, Purdue College of Pharmacy) served as a faculty mentor for this project. In this article, the authors describe their service-learning project intended to increase awareness on campus regarding prescription drug abuse and misuse.

Smart Disease Prevention App: Informing The Public In Their Own Geographic Location, Apoorva Sulakhe, Shafali Rana, Zoe Disori, William Nogay, Kyle Plummer, Meredith Shannon, Morgan Young, Alyssa Zielinski, Vincent G. Duffy

Purdue Journal of Service-Learning and International Engagement

Apoorva Sulakhe and Shefali Rana are graduate students in the School of Industrial Engineering at Purdue. They have both been teaching assistants under their coauthor, Dr. Vincent Duffy, while supervising multiple projects. Coauthors Zoe Disori, William Nogay, Kyle Plummer, Meredith Shannon, Morgan Young, and Alyssa Zielinski are listed in alphabetical order. They were all seniors in School of Industrial Engineering at the time of this project in 2017. The purpose of their study, described in this article, was to develop an application to provide users with accurate information about diseases spreading in their geographic locations.

Leveraging Technology: Enhancing Study Time Through Competition, Ming Yang, Lindsey Eble, Patricia Darbishire

Purdue Journal of Service-Learning and International Engagement

Ming (Max) Yang and Lindsey Eble are students in their final year of the Doctor of Pharmacy program in the Purdue University College of Pharmacy. Max is originally from Chesterfield, Missouri, and Lindsey is from Newburgh, Indiana. After graduation in May 2018, Max will complete residency training at Aurora St. Luke’s Medical Center in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Lindsey will complete residency training at Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis, Missouri. Both plan to work in a hospital or clinic setting providing patient care within an interdisciplinary healthcare team. They both worked under the guidance of Dr. Patricia Darbishire to develop a website …