High Point University Student Health seeks to navigate student wellness throughout a pandemic.
Taylor Ann Hartley
Q News
High Point University Student Health is slammed with students due to a recent increase in sicknesses since the Fall of 2020, leading to uneven care and rumors in and about the clinic.
“The clinic has been inundated with people,” said Senior Vice President for Health and Wellness Gail Tuttle. “With COVID, people are much more prone to go to the doctor than they were two years ago, and we only have three healthcare providers.”
I’m sick. What now?
“I think it’s scary to go to the doctor because you don’t know what’s going to happen,” said sophomore Lily Maggio. “At the same time, not going to Student Health or a different doctor will only make you sick longer and you could infect other people.”
Once a student feels symptoms they can make an appointment either by calling Student Health or booking an appointment online using MyChart, the app of Novant which is HPU’s healthcare affiliate. If the clinic cannot provide medical care for the student, they will refer them to a provider who can.
However, students that have symptoms treatable by Student Health encounter a variety of rumors and statements about the procedure the clinic goes through with students.
"I heard that when you go in, they just test you for everything,” said Maggio. “I thought I was going to be tested for strep throat, mono, and COVID.”
According to Tuttle, students will only be tested for COVID-19 if the provider deems it necessary. This is a result of the low supply of preferred tests the clinic has.
“There are effective rates of different rapid tests, and our clinic had the two rapid tests that they wanted,” said Tuttle. “The clinic ran out of those and used a different brand, which caused some confusion.”
This confusion and reluctance to visit the clinic is intensified by students who fear their professor will not be
accomodating if they miss class. Despite this, Assistant Professor of Game Design Kristina Bell noted that in her experience professors at HPU are accommodating when students are sick, but she recognizes there is room for improvement.
“I think we need to change the culture around working and illness to make it more accomodating to those that are sick,” said Bell.
The university is making attempts to improve this culture as far as their response to COVID in the classroom. HPU professors are highly encouraged to accommodate their sick students, especially if they are quarantined.
“The protocol is, if an individual has moved into the hotel, an absence notification is sent on the students we have, and it will say that the student will not be in class during a two-week window and to please work with them during this time,” said Assistant Vice President of Student Life Scott Wojciechowski.
The quarantining process has now been altered since its implementation during the fall of 2020, reducing the likelihood a student will get quarantined. Asymptomatic students who are contact traced and prove their vaccination documentation can continue on as normal.
"During contact tracing, we now either work with them for quarantine or verification of their vaccination," said Wojciechowski.
Tuttle and Wojciechowski acknowledge the apprehension of students but both encourage students to take autonomy over their health, especially while living in a congregant environment. They emphasize the seriousness of taking care of one's own health for the student themselves and for those around them.
“Just like when they're in the car, do they intentionally drive like a maniac?” said Tuttle. “That's basically how they need to see when they're symptomatic. They need to know, metaphorically, that they're in a car potentially ready to run over somebody.”
Uneven Experiences
of 2021. With her roommate, she decided to make a trip to Student Health but was reluctant to do so.
When she was not able to get an appointment, she was forced to go to a nearby urgent care clinic.
The university has seen an increase in students going to the clinic and alternative healthcare providers, according to
Tuttle. Students are tasked with navigating health care on their own for the first time in their life, all while the clinic is overwhelmed.
Due to the in-demand nature of the clinic, students are finding that appointments are harder and harder to make.
“I called Student Health a few times when I was really sick and they didn’t answer,” said Maggio. “I left a voicemail, and I never got a call back.”
If students can get an appointment at Student Health, Maggio claims they may find they will get different medication and recommendations for the same diagnoses of someone close to them.
“I feel like the standard of care is blurry,” said Maggio. “ I had two friends test negative for strep with the same symptoms and one got antibiotics and the other one got nothing.”
Even if the student gets an appointment, they often chose to go to a different health care establishment the next time they are sick, after having larger expenses incurred from the clinic than expected. Tuttle attributes this problem to how some insurance plans do not cover out-of-state medical care.
“I think because Novant files for office visits with their insurance providers and some don't cover that movement to a different state," said Tuttle.
Many of these complaints can be found on the HPU parent Facebook page, which is a closed social media page where parents post complaints and information. Tuttle states that HPU's health and wellness department keeps a close eye on the page.
Though, this does not account for the verbal rumors and opinions of the student body that do not get communicated to the parents. Some students are concerned that Student Health does not fulfill its role as an effective on-campus clinic that cares for students when they are away from home.
"You're away from your parents, you're on your own, but they're supposed to be like the school nurse," said Maggio. "You know, sometimes I feel like the school nurse is utterly failing."
Tuttle recognizes that the clinic has room for improvement but COVID has prevented them from taking that initiative. According to Tuttle, there are no actions in place to improve the clinic or plans to do so.
“We've talked about this preventative and proactive health care on our campus,” said Tuttle. “There were big dreams about wanting to do that and then COVID hit.”
Tuttle wants any student at HPU to know that if they have difficulties with Student Health to reach out to her. The student or their parent can also reach out to Campus Concierge and will be connected to her through them.
“I'm here to help somebody who has issues with the clinic,” said Tuttle.
HPU's Different Approach
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| Information found at HPU Health Hub, Healthy Elon, WFU COVID Dashboard |
“Overall, we wanted people to be able to make their own choice, right or wrong,” said Tuttle. "I think you could go and make a case for either point of view.”
This decision was influenced by the complaints Student Life received about both the mask policy and concerns about a vaccine mandate.
“We get lots of calls about the vaccine and masks,” said Wojciechowski. "Even when we were advertising the vaccine clinic on campus last spring, and we got 10 to 15 angry phone calls about that.”
Also unlike other universities, HPU only tested students who came to Student Health with symptoms. Due to this, there are fears that some COVID cases went unnoticed.
“We're basing it off of reported cases. So I think a lot of other institutions that had scheduled testing were on a different level because they're catching it. After all, we're based on an honor system,” said Wojciechowski.
As a result of this honor system, Tuttle is concerned HPU students learned to not report their COVID cases to stay out of quarantine. Though, the numbers of the HPU athletes, who were tested regularly, reflected better than average numbers as compared to other universities.
“We were doing surveillance testing on the population of athletes because the NCAA required it, so we were still doing better in that regard,” said Tuttle.
In keeping with allowing students to choose how they care for themselves, the university does not require a COVID vaccination. Though, many HPU students are still choosing to be vaccinated, according to Wojciechowski.
“Anecdotally, the number for students who are identified in close contacts, a significant number have been able to provide proof of vaccination, which in absence of a vaccine mandate is great,” said Wojciechowski.
Requests made for the statistics of vaccinations or quarantine statistics from past months were denied. According to Wojciechowski, these statistics are not recorded in a database.
The information regarding COVID numbers available to the public is updated daily and is available on HPU's website.
"We are sharing what we want to share," said Tuttle. "Anything that needs to be shared is already available."
High Point Students are cautiously navigating the ideals and protocols of our new understanding of illnesses. In the same way, they must navigate their own healthcare choices and decide if an appointment at Student Health is appropriate for their needs.
"If I returned to Student Health it would only be if I needed a quick test for something like mono, otherwise I would most likely go to a different doctor because it seems like I would get better care there," said Maggio.
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