Student Health Serves Students

To the Editors:

This is just a quick note for all of those who complain, continuously, about Student Health Services...

I realize that it really sucks to be sick. I also realize that it would make some of us feel better if there were a doctor hired to take care of students rather than a nurse practitioner or registered nurse. That being said, I think it is time that we all realize that the people that work at the Student Health Center are competent. This is not to say that no one has ever been misdiagnosed, or that every cold medicine they give out cures anything at all. What it is saying is that when you go there with some minor problem, they help without complaints. Moreover, they do it for free. Would you want to pay for an HIV test? Do you like waiting in a doctor's office for 40 minutes to be seen for only five minutes and then pay $200 to be told that you are sick? Do you like paying for condoms? How about for counseling? The list could go on...

So, next time you are sick and complaining about how you want to see "a real professional," remember that these people are "real professionals." If you want more care with more machines and more technology for lots more money, then go to the hospital. Or maybe you should just drive yourself to Cleveland to go to some big name doctor's office. If you don't like what Student Health Services does for us, then don't use them.

Maybe, also, you should remember that if you didn't drink so much, or slept more, or ate properly, or exercised at all you wouldn't be so sick so often. Student Health is not just there to cure us because we don't take care of ourselves. Remember that many schools have no form of free health care for their students. And try being appreciative of what the school provides, on occasion.

-- Sarah Miller, College sophomore