College Health

College Health is a field of medicine that exclusively deals with the medical care of college age students (from age 18 through 28 years). Many colleges and universities campuses offer some sort of student health service, but there is wide variability in the healthcare resources available from campus to campus, with models of student health ranging from first aid stations employing a single nurse to large multi-specialty clinics with hundreds of employees. The vast majority of college health services are set up as service units rather than academic departments. The educational aspect of college health is sometimes referred to Health Promotion in Higher Education.

In 1988, it was estimated that there were approximately 27.3 college health staff per 10,000 students, which if amortized to the 20.7 million students attending the more than 3,400 colleges and universities in the United States (in 2003) ), suggests that there are approximately 56,500 college health professionals in the United States. College health professionals include physicians, physician assistants, administrators, nurses, nurse practitioners, mental health professionals, health educators, dietitians and nutritionists, and pharmacists. Some college health services extend to include massage therapists, and athletic trainers.

College health professionals are often members of a national body, such as the American College Health Association. Another national body among college health is the National Collegiate EMS Foundation (NCEMSF), which is dedicated to the promotion and support of emergency medical services on college and university campuses.

There is one known commercial organization, COLLEGE HEALTH @ssociates (CH@), that is solely focused on the college health sector and which is currently providing health education and Continuing Medical Education (CME) for college health providers and their students. CH@ is a business solutions organization engaged in the development of health center operational solutions that provide economic value and financial and personnel efficiencies through pharmaceuticals and consumer based healthcare products.

There is one known discussion forum focused on the college health community. College Health Info is a free forum based discussions board based on collective intelligence. Created as a way for college health professionals to share answers to their questions, CHI provides specialty specific healthcare information by and for college health professionals. The site also has a jobs board, events calendar, and a social networking area for off topic conversations. This format is unique because contributors are required to submit their credentials before they are allowed to contribute to the site, ensuring meaningful and trustworthy information.

There are currently three journals devoted exclusively to college health, the Journal of American College Health, available by subscription since, College Health @dvisor a clinical e-Journal with originally authored articles by college health providers focusing on therapeutic conditions pertinant to the college health provider; College Health @dvisor is published by COLLEEGE HEALTH @ssociates, a healthcare care based business solution organization dedicated to bringing value services to the college health provider through healthcare, and collegehealth-e, a web-based journal available without subscription since October 2005.

Only one textbook is devoted entirely to the subject of college health has been published. “The History and Practice of College Health” was published in 2006 by The University Press of Kentucky, and edited by H. Spencer Turner, MD and Janet L. Hurly, PhD.