Members from the state’s higher education committees saw up close the innovative ways WSU is preparing the next generation of health professionals and the health services available to students during visits made to WSU’s Pullman and Spokane campuses earlier this month.
Over the course of two visits in four days, the two committees met with campus leaders and external partners to discuss how the university is serving rural, remote, and underserved communities through initiatives like the WSU family medicine residency at Pullman Regional Hospital and the Rural Health Initiative in the College of Pharmacy, which is seeking to recruit future pharmacists from rural communities to return graduates into these underserved areas.
The group also spent time touring the Center for Native American Health, where students across health science disciplines are being equipped with skills needed to engage with patients from marginalized and underrepresented backgrounds. At the WSU College of Nursing, members visited the Center for Experiential Learning, where they saw the simulation lab settings where students practice clinical skills in a realistic but controlled environment. These Centers allow students to operate in intense situations that they might face in clinical settings but make mistakes that they can learn from.
At WSU’s Cougar Health Services, members heard about the holistic suite of services available to students at Pullman’s student health care center. In addition to basic primary care, Cougar Health Services also provides students with access to counseling and psychological services for counseling as well as the Access Center to assist students in securing any accommodations they may need.