Joanne Ocasio is the Nurse Supervisor in Millersville’s Health Services. Ocasio and her small but mighty team of healthcare professionals work tirelessly to keep students healthy and safe.
Through the pandemic, Health Services has not only continued serving the everyday needs of Millersville students, but has also run point on COVID-19 testing, case counting, data collection, and maintaining vaccination records.
Last spring, Athletics presented Health Services with the Core Values award in recognition of the department’s arduous work and dedication to assisting Millersville athletes during the pandemic.
Health Services partnered with Athletics to keep its programming running in the fall of 2020.
Health Services and Athletics work extremely closely together to ensure the health and safety of their athletes. According to Ocasio, some athletes had to be tested if they showed any sign of possible COVID-19 symptoms, before every game, and on some occasions, students had to be tested 3 times a week.
“We came in on Saturdays to test before they would travel to an away game. They had to be tested within 24 hours of going to a game that was away.”
“Everybody that works here as a public health nurse or nurse practitioner, has a passion for college health and for the students that we work with,” says Ocasio. “Without the phenomenal staff that we have here, we could not do this. It’s a staff that not only cares about the students, but they care about each other. They work very well together, [it is] a well-functioning team.”
Ocasio says when she first came to work at Millersville, she believed Health Services was a best-kept secret on campus. The pandemic has brought Health Services into the forefront of campus, highlighting the need for caring for both physical and mental health in a university context.
Health Services’ primary aim is to help students stay healthy so that they can achieve their goals and graduate. Ocasio says that many students come to college still being dependent on their parents or guardians when it comes to their healthcare. Health Services partners with peer educators on campus, CHEP, and the Counseling Center to carry out their mission of educating and supporting students during their time at Millersville.
“One of our goals is to make sure that students are educated about their own health so when they leave the university, they are responsible consumers of medicine and know how to use the healthcare system and take care of themselves.”
To learn more about what’s next for Millersville’s Health Services, visit https://www.millersville.edu/healthservices/index.php.