BLUFFTON, OH (WLIO) - ONU's Mobile Clinic is back on the road providing free healthcare for those who may not be able to seek medical treatment. Our Madison Kenjura went to get a check-up for herself.
On Friday, March 31st, Ohio Northern University's HealthWise Mobile Clinic traveled to the Bluffton Public Library, giving free check-ups to the community. The mobile clinic is operated by students and residents of the university's pharmacy program who work alongside medical resident doctors from Mercy Health St. Rita's.
"We go to different areas of our community, here in Bluffton today, and help set up adequate ways so that our underserved community can get access to healthcare. We can also help our primary care providers in the area by seeing them here quickly and seeing if they need to have a quick follow-up or go to an urgent care center," explained Rajpal Aujla, medical resident doctor.
The HealthWise clinic is also a training center for pharmacy students and residents, as it gives them the opportunity to apply their skills and knowledge outside of the classroom gaining them the experience of treating multiple patients, by providing basic healthcare.
"It teaches me a lot about the different things that other healthcare professionals know. It teaches me how to properly collaborate with others. I would say definitely knowing other people's expertise and being able to rely on other healthcare practitioners in a field, because normally in a classroom you wouldn't be working with other people. So, it's a more realistic scenario," said Sam Perisin, 4th-year pharmacy student.
"I think it's an awesome experience. For them, it's an idea where they're able to get early exposure and collaboration with physicians and that helps with the pharmacy residents to help get that more. A lot of times when they rotate through the hospital they won't get a lot of that exposure early on. So, the idea here is if they get this exposure now it will get them more prepared when they go into a hospital setting," added Dr. Aujla.
ONU's HealthWise Mobile Clinic travels to eight different locations throughout the month but will be back at the Bluffton Public Library on Friday, April 28th from 11:30 a.m. - 1:30 p.m.
