Access to Higher Education (Health Professions) students at Walsall College hosted a Health Promotion Event at the Wisemore Campus. Students organised the whole event themselves as part of their course. They were required to plan, prepare and implement a small scale health promotion, which meant they had to make contact with both internal colleagues and external agencies and respond to issues as they arose.
They worked in groups and each focussed on a different health issue which included mental health, safety in the sun, health in pregnancy, alcohol awareness, organ donation, healthy eating and sexual health. Each group planned their own stall, collected resources and organised the loan of specialist equipment.
A range of free fruit and healthy food samples as well as activities from dancing on the Wii to walking along a line whilst wearing beer goggles attracted students and staff from across the college to the stalls, where the health students were on hand to offer advice and guidance on a range of health issues.
Course Leader, Angela Taylor said: “The students have shown great professionalism and initiative in organising this event, from becoming experts on their chosen topics to researching guidelines for promoting health issues.
“Over the two days they spoke to a broad range of people from different walks of life, including fellow staff and students, from senior managers to supported learning students, as well as children from the college’s Little Professors Nursery to members of the public. They were very compassionate and mindful of the way in which they delivered sometimes sensitive information
“The students all have aspirations to pursue careers in nursing, midwifery, physiotherapy or similar after going to university, so organising this event was a great insight into the health awareness aspect of industry roles.”
Student, Neil Woolley worked in a group to set up a stall presenting the benefits of drinking water instead of drinks with high levels of sugar. “After contacting Danone for help in this project, I was extremely grateful to them for supplying 500 bottles of Volvic water.
“We held a drinks amnesty where we ‘swapped the pop' for a bottle of Volvic water to encourage everyone to follow a healthier lifestyle. We managed to hand out most of the water in exchange for sugary drinks.
“My aim is to achieve my degree and become a nurse and through this project I’ve learnt that high sugar diets including fizzy drinks are one of the main causes of epidemics in obesity, tooth decay and type 2 diabetes. I now have a much greater understanding about the need to educate people on these health issues and how to combat them and will be able to use this knowledge in my future role.”
