Bluffton University

Bluffton University students’ access to health care is expanding thanks to a new partnership between the university and Bluffton Hospital.

“It’s going to be a significantly increased level of service for our students,” said Dr. Eric Fulcomer, the university’s vice president for enrollment management and student life. “I expect a significant increase in Health Center usage.”

Under the agreement, the hospital will staff the university’s Health Center 20 hours per week with a nurse practitioner or physician assistant, either of whom can make diagnoses and write prescriptions. In addition, as part of the agreement, students may go to the hospital at any time—24 hours a day, seven days a week—and consult with the attending physician in the ER.

The hospital has been recognized for its service, ranking first among 164 Ohio hospitals for patient satisfaction by the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems and receiving the national Press Ganey Summit Award for customer satisfaction. Last year, Bluffton was one of only 32 inpatient hospitals in the United States to receive the award, which is given to health care facilities that sustain the highest level of customer satisfaction for three or more consecutive years.

“There aren’t many villages our size that have a university and a hospital,” he added.  “It makes Bluffton a better community.”

In July, Baransy, a junior from Ottawa, Ohio, will attend a Renovare Retreat in San Diego focusing on spiritual discernment and discovery. After returning to Bluffton, the social work major will work with campus pastor Stephen Intagliata to put her insights into practice as a pastoral assistant.

 

Telahun, a sophomore from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, majoring in economics and business administration, is volunteering in youth and children ministries at Ethiopian Fellowship Church in Sacramento, Calif.

 

A broadcasting and journalism major, Young is an intern with Education Broadcasting Services in Lusaka, Zambia. There, the sophomore from Fort Lauderdale, Fla., is working with students in grades 1-7, instructing them in academic and basic life skills through a process of interactive broadcasting.

 

This is the seventh year that Summer Discovery Grants have been available to students interested in designing an experience that will allow them to creatively explore connections between their faith journeys and vocational discernment. Funding is through the Karl Schultz Discovery Funds, an endowment established through the gift of Bluffton alumnus Karl Schultz.

Students who have completed grade seven, eight or nine and have had at least an accelerated pre-algebra course may attend the Bluffton University Junior High Mathematics Enrichment Camp June 7-11.

 

Led by Dr. Donald Hooley, professor of mathematics, participants will explore geometrically themed topics that do not commonly appear in either secondary or college math courses, including graph theory, knot theory, topological surfaces, non-Euclidean geometry and cellular automata.

 

Camp hours are 10 a.m. to noon June 7-9 and 1-3 p.m. June 10 and 11. On the first day, participants should bring a pencil or pen, calculator and notebook, along with a $10 instruction and materials fee, to the mathematics computer lab area outside Hooley’s office, 310 Centennial Hall.

 

For more information or to register, contact Hooley at 419-358-3259 or hooleyd@bluffton.edu.