By Phoebe Alwine | Reporter On a regular day we are all normally rushing to our next class, sitting in traffic, hastily trying to find a parking spot or going to work. But now most of us aren’t doing that. We’ve found ourselves in this time of rest, time of isolation and time of boredom. While it is easy to sleep until 3 p.m. and binge watch television, we have been given this time of rest to make something out of it. We now have an uncertain amount of time to better ourselves. Whether finding a new hobby, bettering your…
Author: Phoebe Alwine
By Phoebe Alwine | ReporterWorking as a Registered Nurse at UT Southwestern in the Emergency Department, Baylor Nursing alumni, Lauren Gustafson, is on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic. Her job includes helping patients in critical conditions become stable, doing blood work and EKGs (electrocardiograms) and carrying out doctors’ orders in order to treat the patients properly. Since the outbreak of the coronavirus, Gustafson’s work has changed dramatically.“Our regular ER flow has definitely changed due to this pandemic. We used to put people with fevers, cough, and runny noses into a fast-track area because it was most likely the…
By Phoebe Alwine | ReporterBaylor’s counseling center has adapted its treatments amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. With faculty and staff working from home, the counselors have begun counseling sessions via phone and WebEx, a platform for video-conferences.In an email sent out Monday, President Linda Livingstone said that the counseling services would still be available without in-person sessions.“As announced last week, the Counseling Center will serve students via technology connections through the remainder of the semester,” Livingstone said.The Dean of Student Health and Wellness and Executive Director for Counseling Services Dr. Jim Marsh said that even with Waco’s shelter-in-place policy, the counseling…
By Phoebe Alwine | ReporterBaylor offers physical therapy using equipment and exercises to students, staff and faculty. All services are located within the McLane Student Life Center. Dr. Richard Gochis, head physical therapist at the McLane Student Life Center, said he works with individuals that come in with a wide range of injuries.“Any musculoskeletal injuries – so any back pain, knee injuries, ankles, shoulders… I do a lot of musculoskeletal type and sports orthopedic stuff,” Gochis said.Gochis said he is able to enhance his rehabilitation services by using the available equipment. He said he uses treadmills, bikes and rowers, as…
By Phoebe Alwine | Reporter Baylor Scott & White Health held the grand opening of the Ted and Sue Getterman Sports and Orthopedic Center Thursday, designed to advance sports medicine and promote injury prevention.The building is the new home to the Baylor Scott & White Southwest Sports Medicine & Orthopedics team of physicians along with physical therapists, state-of-the-art imaging equipment and orthopedic surgery.Senior officials from Baylor Scott & White and Baylor Athletics all spoke at the grand opening, including Glenn Robinson, president of Baylor Scott & White Medical Center Hillcrest.“This facility allows us to add 3T MRI care for our…
By Phoebe Alwine | ReporterThe Louise Herrington School of Nursing (LHSON) on Baylor’s Dallas campus provides an education to baccalaureate and graduate level nurses for professional practice, healthcare leadership and worldwide service. Graduating in May of 2019, Riley Mills and Hannah Conrad spent their initial two years on the Waco campus and later began their nursing journey in the heart of Dallas at LHSON.Conrad said that after her childhood experience with surgery, she saw how kind nurses were and was inspired to become one.Mills said that she was inspired to become a nurse through global missions where she loved caring…
By Phoebe Alwine | ReporterMost dogs are considered sweet, loving, adorable companions. Why are pit bulls thought of as any different? There is a stereotype that all pit bulls are aggressive and bad-behaving dogs. However, society has them utterly misunderstood.In the 1830s, the United Kingdom began breeding bulldogs with terriers in order to use them to hunt and kill rats. When society found their hunting amusing, they began putting the dogs in fights against each other. Soon after, dog fighting became one of the biggest forms of entertainment. By the 1970s, these dog fights became a well-known event in the…
By Phoebe Alwine | ReporterBaylor students and faculty are scheduled to bring medical education to communities around the globe. During spring break, a combination of nursing, pre-medicine and public health students will be embarking on missions to bring help to Peru and the Dominican Republic. Jeanne Carey, lab manager at the Louise Herrington School of Nursing and faculty leader of the trip to Peru, said that her team will be providing medical screenings and educational sessions to the city of Collique for people of all ages.“We will be working with “Operación San Andrés” and they’ve been able to set it…
By Phoebe Alwine | ReporterResearchers from Baylor University developed a mobile application for patients in Bengaluru, India that helps to educate people on Diabetes. The “Healthy Diabetes India App” is led by Dr. Shelby Garner, associate professor at Baylor University’s Louise School of Nursing.This month, Garner and two colleagues are heading to India to test the app on 400 individuals from urban slums and rural communities. After initial testing, Garner said she plans to implement the app into kiosks around the BBH later this month. Garner said a grant was awarded to Professor Julia Hitchcoch, the team’s creative director and…
By Phoebe Alwine | ReporterThe McLane Student Life Center offers exercise classes to help students feel safer on and off campus. The FitWell program has classes such as Mixed Martial Arts, taekwondo, boxing and kickboxing for students to learn about self-defense. The MMA class is a full-body sport that tones and strengthens muscles. Erik Carrera, FitWell’s MMA instructor, said he discovered the impact that MMA can have when a peer was bullied in school and was able to use what he was taught in MMA class to defend himself.“[MMA] focuses more on self defense, takedown against bigger people, smaller people,…
By Phoebe Alwine | ReporterBaylor offers the National College Health Assessment (NCHA) to students in order to help educators better understand Baylor’s population. The NCHA is a national research survey that is offered by the American College Health Association. Alyssa Petty, education and outreach coordinator at the Baylor University Wellness Center, said that the survey helps to inform universities and health educators to better understand students’ behaviors and habits. “It provides us practitioners with an overview of what the student population is kind of going through,” Petty said.Petty said that some issues plaguing most campuses, including Baylor’s, include stress, anxiety,…
By Phoebe Alwine | ReporterPottery spinning, yarn weaving, wood chippings, metal tools and the smell of baked goods are some of the treasures at Homestead Heritage, a community approximately 20 minutes away from Baylor.Homestead prides itself on being an intentional Christian community valuing sustainability, agriculture, self-sufficiency and craftsmanship. Seated on 510 acres and consisting of a craft village, faming land, pastures and housing, the close-knit community is home to around 1,000 members.Homestead Heritage’s website states that while not affiliated with a larger organization, it shares beliefs with many Christian groups such as Baptist, Mennonites and Methodists.“We are nondenominational, but our…
By Phoebe Alwine | ReporterBaylor’s Wellness Center offers Peer Nutrition Advisors to its community. The Peer Nutrition Advisement Program is comprised of students majoring in Nutrition Sciences with a concentration in Pre-Dietetics. With supervision from a registered dietitian, the students provide basic nutrition advisement to the Baylor community. For a $10 fee, advisors meet for three one-hour sessions. During these meetings, advisors analyze one’s diet, assess dietary goals, base the recommended diet upon lifestyle and educate on proper nutrition based on scientific facts.Stan Wilfong, senior lecturer in Family and Consumer Sciences, program coordinator of Nutrition Sciences and registered dietitian mentor…
By Phoebe Alwine | ReporterBaylor offers yoga to students, staff and faculty. It can be practiced during lifetime fitness courses and classes in the McLane Student Life Center with the FitWell program’s certified yoga instructors. There are many different types of yoga, each one focusing on a different aspect of the body. Some major forms include hatha yoga, which focuses on breathing and poses, restorative yoga, which uses blankets and bolsters to help one dive deeper into relaxation and vinyasa yoga, which combines breath-work with poses. Kelsey Stevens, a FitWell yoga instructor at Baylor University, prefers to teach the style…