Balancing student life with keeping yourself healthy is no easy task. Luckily for us Portland State students, the Center for Student Health and Counseling exists. While it’s been rightfully criticized in the past for long wait-times and fees for uninsured students, SHAC does do a lot of good and provides relatively quick and helpful service to PSU’s large student population.
Since transferring to PSU in 2011, I’ve never used the services provided at SHAC; until recently, that is. Prior to this year, I’ve never been sick to the point that I felt SHAC’s services were necessary. Then, suddenly, I started feeling flu-like symptoms and near-constant fatigue. Most professors start lowering your grades if you miss a certain number of classes per term, so I still attended my daily classes, which in retrospect probably wasn’t the smartest idea. At one point my ears popped, and then one eardrum never “unpopped.”
Prior to this I had a lot of reservations about going to SHAC. I’d heard that immediate care was a near impossibility, and that the quality of care received by my peers was less than stellar. But after waking up to a near-complete loss of hearing in my left ear I decided it was time to suck it up and see a doctor at SHAC. Upon arrival I was able to see both a nurse and a physician right away. They were able to check me out quickly and thoroughly, as well as prescribe me antibiotics to fight what seemed to be an ear infection of sorts coupled with the flu.
Apart from attending my Friday morning French class (a lot of fun when you can only hear out of one ear and your voice is almost nonexistent), I’ve been bedridden and working on feeling better. I’m still waiting for my hearing to fully return, but I’m still very happy with and thankful for the health services so readily available to me and every other student at PSU.
The Accreditation Association for Ambulatory Health Care recently accredited SHAC. This is the highest level of accreditation a university health care center can attain. This particular accreditation means that SHAC is “committed to providing high-quality care and that it has demonstrated its commitment by achieving AAAHC Standards.”
The AAAHC doesn’t accredit every care center, either. Patients of accredited health centers must be “treated with respect, consideration and dignity,” and “must be provided with complete information concerning their diagnosis, evaluation, treatment and prognosis.” Having now experienced firsthand what it’s like to be a student receiving care from a university health center, I can attest to that last part.
I’ve gone to urgent care at Oregon Health and Science University before, and I received very good service; however, I much preferred what I got at SHAC. The nurse who aided me even educated me on how I should treat my antibiotic usage while adhering to a vegan diet.
While it’s unknown whether this new accreditation will affect funding, I can only imagine that it will boost the chances of SHAC expanding its staff and the services it provides.
When it comes right down to it, student health care centers are just that: health centers. They aren’t hospitals providing surgery or invasive treatments. SHAC does the best it can with its current staff and services, and obviously that’s paying off.
If there’s been any recent criticism of long wait-times and shorthandedness, just remember that SHAC is providing basic health care and treatment to almost 30,000 students. That doesn’t come without a handful of stress and problems. Let’s hope SHAC keeps doing a good job and that my hearing eventually comes back.