Student Health, fear it

With the rash of crimes plaguing this small town, students are becoming afraid to go to certain areas after dark: Tappan Square, the Arb and Student Health. Okay, that's cheating, students have always been afraid to go to Student Health, even during the day.

Usually one associates doctors with reliable care and solid answers, even with the current distrust of the medical profession. Names of hospitals and private practices line the Yellow Pages with slogans that give the impression that "we care" and "don't worry, our doctors know what they are doing." Those words represent the goals of experienced and trustworhty health care providers.

Oberlin students don't have any such slogans to look to. We have Student Health. An anonymous Student Senate survey on the department showed students have largely negative feelings about it.

One student said, "I think [College Physician Dr. Appleton] is good, she doesn't pretend to know about things outside her specialty." And what would that be exactly? Family practice? Great! Let's get her a family to practice on and find someone who knows something about students.

Unfortunately for Dr. Appleton and the rest of the staff, the reports weren't all so optimistic. "She tried to kill me," reported one student. Now we all know Dr. Appleton isn't dangerous. She just didn't prescribe antibiotics when they were necessary. And she didn't mean to misdiagnose another student with a cold when it was really mono. Maybe the student heard her wrong. Students often do things wrong. Like the time a violin player held his/her arm too low when the nurses were taking blood which caused the student to get a bruise. He/she will learn not to do that next time, won't he/she?

The point is that Student Health got mixed reviews. Luckily, Dean Cole has brought in consultants to remedy the situation or at least to give some good recommendations. At this point the wisest plan may be to just start over. Bomb the whole area, forget the past, and rebuild. There are so many problems ingrained in the Oberlin Student Health system that even if we were to, say, get a couple of well-trained, knowledgeable doctors to leave their glamorous, high-paying jobs and move to the middle of nowhere, even then the problem would not be solved. There would still be the waiting room - it fits about five people if none of them breathe - to deal with.

The list goes on. Every day students are misdiagnosed, treated roughly and spoken to as if they are feeling sick only to annoy the Student Health staff. Suggesting a boycott is pointless since most of us already go to the Oberlin Clinic anyway.

The Oberlin Clinic seems to be a haven compared to Student Health. It's easy because they already have all of our information. It's almost as if the College is expecting students to turn to the Clinic. It almost sounds like administration doesn't have much more faith in Student Health than the students do. It's interesting to notice how long it takes administration to actually start dealing with a problem from the time the problem pulls out of the drive to when it swerves out of control and crashes into a tree. Until the time comes for actual physical change, the best idea is just not to get sick. It will be hard. Some of you may not make it, but that's the way it goes. This is war.