{"id":11007,"date":"2021-04-28T10:18:53","date_gmt":"2021-04-28T15:18:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.uwsp.edu\/cps\/?p=11007"},"modified":"2021-04-28T10:18:53","modified_gmt":"2021-04-28T15:18:53","slug":"health-promotion-students-use-practicum-to-help-peers-maintain-wellness-in-isolation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.uwsp.edu\/cps\/2021\/04\/28\/health-promotion-students-use-practicum-to-help-peers-maintain-wellness-in-isolation\/","title":{"rendered":"Health promotion students use practicum to help peers maintain wellness in isolation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Spending\n time in isolation or quarantine after having or being exposed to \nCOVID-19 can be a lonely and monotonous experience for university \nstudents, who are used to being social and near other people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, a group of health promotion and wellness<\/a> majors has been working to change that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hoping\n to inspire emotional and social wellness as well as physical, the \nstudents used their practicum course over the past two semesters to \ncreate a website<\/a> and care package to inspire and help students stay positive during the time they spend alone. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I\n had COVID-19 last fall and even though I was at home, it felt very \nisolating,” said Nicole Neuberger, a health promotion and wellness major\n from Minnetrista, Minn. “I also had a few first-year student hockey \nteammates who had a harder time adjusting to the first weeks of college \nbecause of their time in quarantine. This was a great opportunity for me\n to speak up about these experiences and help our UWSP community.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\n care packages, delivered by Dining Services with their first meal, \ncontain a gratitude journal, yoga mat, brain games and activities, \nhealthy snacks and links to videos created by students for exercise and \nmeditation. The website has links to COVID-19 information, entertaining \npodcasts, wellness tips, resources for academics as well as mental and \nphysical health on the local and national level and things to do such as\n online museums, quizzes and a variety of virtual activities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“It \nis all about students caring about students,” said Terry Aittama, a \nsenior lecturer in health promotion and wellness who leads the practicum\n course to give students hands-on experiences in the community. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“As\n health promotion majors, they recognize that human connection is \nessential to well-being,” she said. “They were excited to engage in \ninnovative ways to connect with other students.  I’m so proud of what \nthey worked together to accomplish.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last fall, fewer off-campus \npracticum opportunities were available because of the pandemic, Aittama \nsaid, so classroom experiences became the focus. The class brainstormed \nand the website idea was created. Andy Saul, a health promotion and \nwellness major from Ripon, had a lead role in creating the site with \nideas, articles, links and other resources researched by others in the \ncourse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We wanted to create a way to keep students’ minds off \ntheir struggles and help them stay positive,” Saul said. “It became a \ngood place for lots of resources. I could not have put it all together \nwithout the help of my classmates.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Last\n spring Aittama won the College of Professional Studies Heroes Award, \nwhich came with a $2,000 stipend to support student work in the \ncommunity. She decided to use the funds to buy items for the care \npackages, which a few students assembled for distribution in April. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among\n them was Eryn Murphy, a health promotion and wellness major from Byron,\n Ill., who this spring also took on a practicum role at UWSP’s \nCounseling Center. Initially interested in physical wellness as a focus,\n she has found that she enjoys learning about how mental and social \nwellness makes a difference for people. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I created infographics \nabout having a positive mindset in quarantine through journaling,” she \nsaid. “It feels good to know I can help my community and give back to \nthe university. It has also been helpful to work with different people \nand experience the kind of teamwork that I can take forward into my \ncareer.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I became interested in health promotion and wellness \nbecause I wanted to help people,” said Neuberger, whose spring practicum\n was assisting with promoting wellness through the Portage County Weight\n Race. “It feels good to make a difference in their wellbeing.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Saul,\n who will graduate in May, is pleased that the website created by the \nfall practicum class coordinates with the care package concepts created \nby this spring’s class, with all efforts promoting the seven dimensions \nof wellness, from the physical to the mental.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“This is a great example of the culture at UW-Stevens Point, where students really care about and support each other,” he said. “Coming together to support community health and wellness is really important.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Courtesy of University Communications and Marketing.<\/a><\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Spending time in isolation or quarantine after having or being exposed to COVID-19 can be a lonely and monotonous experience for university students, who are used to being social and near other people. At the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, a group of health promotion and wellness majors has been working to change that. Hoping to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":11008,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,15,546],"tags":[305,342,343,344,358],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uwsp.edu\/cps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11007"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uwsp.edu\/cps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uwsp.edu\/cps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uwsp.edu\/cps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uwsp.edu\/cps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11007"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uwsp.edu\/cps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11007\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11009,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uwsp.edu\/cps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11007\/revisions\/11009"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uwsp.edu\/cps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11008"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uwsp.edu\/cps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11007"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uwsp.edu\/cps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11007"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uwsp.edu\/cps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11007"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}