Wound Care Awareness Week educates attendees…and students

Twenty Clinical and Administrative Medical Assisting and Administrative Health Care Management students from SJVC’s Hesperia campus participated in the St. Mary Center for Wound Care and Hyperbaric Medicine’s public information and health fair, held at the Hesperia Library on Sept. 22-24.

SJVC medical program students, along with four of their instructors and a Department Head, joined students from Victor Valley College and Azusa Pacific University to help educate fair attendees about the importance of healthy skin and proper wound care.

Numerous exhibits provided the more than 250 attendees with wound care screenings and demonstrations on how to care for skin to maintain health, wound prevention, wound treatment and advances in wound care.

“The people that came through the exhibits were looking for answers that, for many of them, were not readily available,” says SJVC student Rebecca Barton. “To see the expressions of concern and relief was just amazing. Knowing that with only a few simple steps we could make such a huge impact on so many lives is something that will never get old. No problem was left unsolved.”

ACHM instructor, Jodie DeSoto was proud of the community service SJVC students provided for this event. Their mission, says Ms. DeSoto was to “enlighten the general community to wound care awareness, along with providing free health screening to the general community of Victor Valley.”

This first-time event impacted the students who volunteered every bit as much as those they served at the fair.

Medical Assisting student, Melissa Cremeans was one of those who deeply felt the importance of the services they were providing.

With few attendees in the beginning, Melissa, at Ms. DeSoto’s suggestion, approached passers-by and invited them to enjoy free health screenings and skin care consultations.

“So many people would make the same response,” says Melissa. “They would say, ‘I feel fine…but maybe I should get checked out.’” “Thankfully, a lot of patients were ok, but unfortunately there were several who needed our help. The look on everyone’s face when they got the results of the glucose, cholesterol and BMI’s, good or bad, was what made it worthwhile for me.”
Melissa’s creative and energetic volunteer work earned her a special award from the St. Mary Wellness Fair for “going above and beyond volunteer duties”.

“It was so much fun getting a sneak peek into the career I have chosen,” says Melissa. “But most importantly, it was a true gift to be able to help the people we were able to help!”

Community volunteerism is an important aspect of all SJVC Medical, Business and Technical programs and students on each campus contribute a great deal to many community service organizations.