Beaver College of Health Sciences

Article and photos via High Country Press, Jesse Wood
Original article available here 

A who’s who of local and regional politicians, business leaders and government officials, including UNC President Margaret Spellings, attended Monday’s site dedication of App State’s future home for the Beaver College of Health Sciences.

The invitation-only event was also a celebration of the voter-approved $2 billion Connect NC Public Improvement Bond because it will fund the $70-million, 203,000-square-foot facility to be located at the corner of Deerfield and State Farm roads.

“Thanks to the bond, the home of the Beaver College of Health Sciences is now a reality. No one is smiling more than Fred right now,” App State Chancellor Sheri Everts said to laughter from the several dozen attendees.

Everts was referring to Frederick K. Whitt, the founding dean of the Beaver College of Health Sciences. With Beaver College currently spread throughout seven buildings across campus, the construction of this facility would free up more than 100,000 square feet of space elsewhere on campus.

Everts said the project is “shovel ready” and will begin in July. LS3P is the architect, and Rodgers is the construction manager at risk.

The building site is located adjacent to the Watauga Medical Center, and Appalachian Regional Healthcare System (ARHS) donated the 10-acre site to the university for this specific facility.

ARHS President Richard Sparks worked hand in hand with former App State Chancellor Ken Peacock, who received a roaring applause during the event, to see this project come to fruition.

In his remarks, Sparks noted the full-circle moment of this site dedication considering the beginnings of Watauga Hospital, which is now the Watauga Medical Center.

“This began over 80 years ago when the partnership produced the first official hospital in Boone on land given for that purpose on the campus. It continues today in reverse with the Healthcare System now providing land for the construction of the health sciences education and training facilities,” Sparks said.

“The healthcare professionals of tomorrow see it right here and their colleagues will begin their journey here. It is from this place that they will touch thousands and thousands of lives many years ahead. Thank you for sharing this historic moment in time with us.”

The college is named after Donald C. Beaver of Conover. Beaver is a graduate of App State and worked at Watauga Hospital – before it was named Watauga Medical Center. He is currently president and CEO of Universal Health Care.

Only six years old, the Beaver College of Health Sciences is already the second largest college at Appalachian State University, having already doubled in size. Currently, the college serves 3,300 students and employs 160 faculty and staff.

According to info provided by the university, Beaver College has 10 undergraduate and five graduate degree programs in the areas of exercise science, nursing, communication sciences and disorders, nutrition, health care management, social work, athletic training, recreation management, health and physical education and health promotion. Most recently, Beaver College was also approved to begin a Master of Science in Nursing degree and an online Master of Health Administration degree program.

As the keynote speaker, Spellings talked about how Beaver College and the new facility will enable App State to form key partnerships in the healthcare field (such as the one with Wake Forest School of Medicine for a physician assistant degree program in Boone) that will further the education of its students and improve healthcare in the region.

“What’s important really isn’t the facility itself but what it will mean to this area and to the community,” Spellings said. “This new building will be a catalyst for change to enhance health and economic development by revitalizing and expanding the proposed medical health district and will be home to academic departments and disciplines that are currently scattered all over the campus, which will facilitate more collaboration, enrich the learning environment and create new opportunities for scholarship and discovery.”

Photo: UNC President Margaret Spellings with Appalachian State University Chancellor Sheri Everts. 

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BOONE- Voters across North Carolina went to polls on Tuesday and showed great support for the Connect NC bond referendum. Nearly two thirds of voters from 91 percent of precincts reporting voted in favor of the $2 billion bond.

Over two thirds of funding from the bond will support public universities and community colleges, including $70 million to support the construction of a new Beaver College of Health Sciences (BCHS) building at Appalachian State University.

This is the first statewide bond in 16 years, the last being a $3.1 billion bond supporting construction spending in the UNC system and community colleges approved by voters in 2000.

UNC system President Margaret Spellings responded to the bond passing, saying, "This is a great day for the UNC system and all of North Carolina. We are grateful to the voters for approving the Connect NC Bond package and for their demonstration of support and confidence in our public university and community colleges."

The new BCHS facility will allow for interprofessional collaboration among program areas in the college in a state-of-the-art 200,000 square foot building. The building complex will be constructed in association with the Appalachian Regional Health Care System, which also generously donated the land for the State Farm Road building site.

The funding also supports renovations to Edwin Duncan Hall, which was constructed in 1965.

Appalachian State University Chancellor Sheri N. Everts praised voters for supporting the bond and Appalachian: "The benefits to our state will include not only a boost to economic activity, but also improved health care. Appalachian State University's role in this growth is in providing quality health care professionals and we are excited that our university will receive funding to build a state-of-the-art teaching and research facility for the Beaver College of Health Sciences. Appalachian's newest college is making a difference in the lives of our students and enhancing health and quality of life in our state and beyond."

More information about the bond and how it's passing will benefit Appalachian is available here. Additional information about the Beaver College of Health Sciences is available here.

Header photo: proposed design for the new BCHS facility

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BOONE- March is National Athletic Training Month, an annual event held for the past fifteen years to spread awareness about what athletic trainers do and inform the public about the athletic training profession.

The 2016 theme is “A Safer Approach to Work, Life and Sport” and it is sponsored by the National Athletic Trainers’Association (NATA), which is a not-for-profit organization based in Dallas, Texas.

The Beaver College of Health Sciences is pleased to be the home of the Athletic Training Program at Appalachian State University. The Athletic Training program was started at Appalachian over 30 years ago and was one of the first programs approved by the NATA.

In alignment with the 2016 theme, the Appalachian Athletic Training Program is raising awareness about student-athlete safety with the support of Miss North Carolina, Allie Dunn.

Over the past year, 11 high school athletes in the United States died playing or practicing sports and thousands more suffered injuries. Despite the North Carolina General Assembly passing the Gfeller-Waller Concussion Awareness Act in 2011 in an attempt to curb the number of serious sports-related injuries or deaths, many schools are still not taking the proper precautions.

Carolina Panthers athletic trainer and Appalachian supporter Kevin King helped facilitate the event and expressed his concern for student-athlete safety: “It is vital for schools to have appropriate sports medicine care during games and practices to ensure the safety of high school student athletes.”

Dunn visited the athletic training facilities where athletic trainers work with student athletes at Appalachian on Tuesday. Athletic training majors, professors, and clinicians demonstrated and discussed techniques sports medicine professionals and athletic trainers use to prevent, treat and rehabilitate injuries of active individuals and teams in our region.

King said, “It is wonderful to have Miss North Carolina help athletic trainers advocate for better medical coverage for young athletes.”

Athletic trainers collaborate with physicians in providing preventative services, emergency care, clinical diagnosis, therapeutic intervention and rehabilitation of injuries and medical conditions. Students who want to become certified athletic trainers must earn a degree from a college or university with an accredited athletic training curriculum.

Athletic trainers are sometimes mistaken for personal trainers. However, to become a certified athletic trainer, a student must graduate with bachelors or masters degree from an accredited professional athletic training program and pass a comprehensive test administered by the Board of Certification. Once certified, students must meet ongoing continuing education requirements in order to remain certified.

Appalachian Athletic Training faculty and staff provide a multitude of services to students, athletes, Appalachian employees, and the community in addition to their commitment to high quality classroom instruction for students and majors. The program prides itself on providing students with opportunities to grow both professionally and personally.

Appalachian Athletic Training graduates are employed throughout the United States in colleges and universities, clinics, corporations, physicians offices, high schools, professional sports, and the military.

More information about the NATA is available on their website at http://www.nata.org/. For more details about the Athletic Training Program in the Beaver College of Health Sciences, please visit athletictraining.appstate.edu.

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BOONE – Camp Crinkleroot, a free day camp to be held April 15-17, is recruiting campers ages 8 – 14 with Autism Spectrum Disorders.  The retreat will be held at the Camp Sky Ranch facility and is staffed by trained Appalachian State University volunteers. 

Camp Crinkleroot  is a program sponsored by Appalachian’s Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina Institute for Health and Human Services within the Beaver College of Health Sciences. It is intended to provide parents and caretakers with free respite care, offer children on the autism spectrum the opportunity to participate in typical camp activities that have been modified for their specific needs, as well as celebrate April as Autism awareness month. Siblings of campers are also invited to attend and will participate in all camp activities as well as special camp activities designed just for them!

Children will have one-on-one supervision and be encouraged to take part in expressive arts and nature activities, field games, s’mores making and other camp fun.

Applications are due by April 1. Availability is limited to 15 campers.

Parents and caregivers interested in participating in this program should contact Mary Sheryl Horine at horinems@appstate.edu to receive a camp application and information or visit http://www.ihhs.appstate.edu/community/crinkleroot.

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The Beaver College of Health Sciences recently received over $300,000 in funding from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) to train students across the college to screen individuals for substance abuse disorders. This is part of an increasing emphasis on interprofessional education by the college.

Participants in the training program will be able to appropriately screen for and identify substance abuse, plan and implement a tailored brief intervention, and will apply the screening, brief intervention, and referral to treatment (SBIRT) approach to substance abuse problems by individualizing these clinical skills to different patients.

Annette Ward, Lecturer in the Department of Social Work, will direct the project and is working with Heather Thorp, Field Director in Social Work, and Carol Cook, Research Coordinator for the BCBS-NC Institute for Health and Human Services (IHHS) to develop the training program.

Program organizers have partnered with faculty at Wake Forest School of Medicine to adapt a previously established medical student training program for students in the BCHS. Dr. David Miller, Associate Professor of Internal Medicine and Public Health Sciences and Dr. Sebastian Kaplan, Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine from Wake Forest School of Medicine are contributing to the development of the specialized program.

SAMHSA is the agency within the U.S. Department of Health and Humans Services that leads public health efforts to advance the behavioral health of the nation. Established in 1992, SAMHSA was founded to make substance abuse and mental disorder information, services, and research more accessible. SAMHSA's mission is to reduce the impact of substance abuse and mental illness on America's communities. More information about SAMHSA is available here.

The Beaver College of Health Sciences prioritizes interprofessional development as part of creating an environment to teach students in a collaborative model of education, research, and clinical outreach. Additional information about the college is available here.

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