Archives: Uncategorized

Mental Health is a topic that many people do not take the time to talk about. Due to the stigma behind mental health, the numbers of people suffering from mental health disorders have risen over time.

Today’s topic is: Workplace Wellness.

Did you know that less than 1/3 of Americans are happy with their work?  Also, 18% are unhappy with their current position. Being unhappy in the workplace or having an unhealthy work environment in bad for a business and even worse for the employees.

Studies shown that being unhappy or unfulfilled by work can take a toll on health, relationships, and lifespan. People in unhealthy work environments are more likely to gain more weight, have more healthcare appointments and have higher rates of absenteeism. Stress obtained from work can also have an impact on an employee’s family life, mental health, and even increase risks for chronic illnesses and heart attacks.

So what separates the few who are excited about their work from the majority of Americans? While there are some differences among age groups and types of employment, a healthy work environment is key to job satisfaction. The happiest employees tend to include interpersonal relationships, commitment to the organization, and a sense of meaning or purpose among the parts of their job with which they are most satisfied. On the other hand, those leaving their jobs tend to cite lack of respect, teamwork, and potential for growth among top reasons for quitting. Work should not just be 8+ miserable hours a day, try to make the most of it and build relationships with your co-workers. Overall, having a positive work experience and environment can increase your overall happiness and health!

Maria Perez, Health Science Pre-Med

Student Blogger

College of Health Science

Climate change is already harming people’s health by promoting illnesses linked to warmer temperatures and changing weather patterns, a leading group of U.S. doctors says in a new position paper.

As a result, the American College of Physicians (ACP) is calling for aggressive, concerted action to fight climate change by curbing man-made greenhouse gas emissions. Respiratory illnesses, heat stroke and infectious diseases like Zika virus, dengue fever and cholera are flourishing as global temperatures rise. In the paper, published online April 18th in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine, the ACP outlines the health problems that it says climate change is already creating:

• Respiratory illnesses, including asthma and COPD. Rising temperatures are causing an increase in ozone pollution, smoke from wildfires, and allergens produced by weeds, grasses and trees. Homes affected by heavy rains or flooding can become host to toxic mold and fungi.
• Heat-related illnesses, such as heat exhaustion and heat stroke, which are particularly dangerous for children and the elderly.
• Insect-borne illnesses, like Zika virus, dengue fever and chikungunya, which are ranging farther north as mosquitoes thrive in warmer climates.
• Water-borne illnesses, such as cholera, which can spread if drought causes poor sanitation or if heavy flooding causes sewer systems to overflow.
• Mental health disorders, including post-traumatic stress disorder and depression connected to natural disasters, as well as the anxiety and stress that accompanies days of hot weather.

The health care sector is ranked second-highest in energy use, after the food industry, spending about $9 billion annually on energy costs, the position paper stated. Health care systems can reduce their carbon footprint through energy conservation and efficiency, alternative energy generation, green building design, improved waste disposal and management, and water conservation, according to the paper.

This paper brings awareness to climate change and emphasizes physicians being advocates in their own health systems, communities, and practices to reduce carbon emissions.

Source: MedLine Plus

Maria Perez, Health Science Pre-Med

Student Blogger

College of Health Science

Texting while driving or even emailing while driving. We have all done it at some point.

Thousands have died in car crashes involving cell phone use. New technology allows us to make phone calls, dictate texts or emails and update social media while driving, all actions that are proven to increase crash risk. The National Safety Council observes April as Distracted Driving Awareness Month to draw attention to this epidemic.

There is no safe way to use a cell phone while driving, even hands free. Distracted driving takes many forms, but cell phone use is at the top. Research shows the brain remains distracted for 27 seconds after dialing, changing music or sending a text using voice commands. Almost everyone has seen a driver distracted by a cell phone, but often you don’t realize that distracted driver is you.

Please remember to not text and drive. Many lives have been endangered due to this problem. Become a part of the solution and encourage others to put the cell phone down while driving as well. Think twice before you use your cell phone in the car. Pull over if it is absolutely necessary for you to send that text.

Source: National Safety Council

Maria Perez, Health Science Pre-Med

Student Blogger

College of Health Science

We love our professors in the College of Health Science and we’d love for you to get to know them as well!

This month’s Faculty Spotlight is on Dr. Amy Miller

Full Name: Amy D. Miller

Job Title, How long you’ve been at CBU: Assistant Professor of Kinesiology, 7 years

Degrees/Certifications Held: BS KIN (CBU), MS KIN (CSU Fullerton), DrPH Health Education (abd from Loma Linda University)

How you decided to obtain your degree in selected field: The human body is fascinating and fun. I wanted to study something that interested me. Once I studied it, I loved it even more and wanted to be able to apply the findings to the masses (in relation to physical activity.)

Family: husband (Jonathan), Mom and dad, 2 sisters, 6 nephews, 2 nieces

ISP, Outside Service projects: ISP Russia, Spain, Suriname, Tanzania. GHE; Tanzania, Philippines

Classes you’ll be teaching in the Fall: KIN 480 (Fitness Assessment and Exercise Prescription), KIN 490 (Principles of Conditioning Athletes), KIN 100 (sand volleyball)

Church Life: Where and what are you involved in: Sandals Church: small group host, 5 year old childcare

Things you like to do in your spare time: active things (hike, soccer, tennis, swim, volleyball, run, play games)

Why you chose to work at CBU: I believe in the mission

Favorite Health Tidbit for Students/Faculty (Exercise, Diet, Recipe, etc.): Choose an activity you enjoy doing and make it a part of your routine.

Thank you Dr. Miller for taking the time to answer our interview questions and allowing us to get to know you a little better!

Maria Perez, Health Science Pre-Med

Student Blogger

College of Health Science

Do you get a moderate amount of exercise, eat right, keep from piling on fat and avoid smoking?

Well, congratulations! You’re among the 2.7 percent of Americans who do so, according to a new study.Unfortunately, the other 97.3 percent of American adults fail on healthy lifestyle habits.

This study looked at data on more than 4,700 people who took part in the U.S. National Health and Nutrition Survey. The researchers assessed how many people followed four general “principles of healthy living” — a good diet, moderate exercise, not smoking and keeping body fat under control. People who adhere to those four behaviors can help reduce their risk of many health problems, including type 2 diabetes, heart disease and cancer.

Unfortunately, less than 3 percent of the adults in the study achieved all four of the healthy living measures, the researchers found. Overall, 71 percent of the adults surveyed did not smoke, 38 percent ate a healthy diet, 10 percent had a normal body fat percentage and 46 percent got sufficient amounts of physical activity. Sixteen percent had three of the healthy lifestyle behaviors, 37 percent had two, 34 percent had one and 11 percent had none.

Among the other findings: women were more likely than men to not smoke and to eat a healthy diet, but they were less likely to have adequate physical activity levels. And when it came to race and ethnicity, Mexican-Americans were more likely to eat a healthy diet than blacks or whites.

The study was conducted by researchers at Oregon State University, the University of Mississippi and the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga. Further research is needed to identify ways to get American adults to adopt more healthy lifestyle habits, the experts said.

The study was published recently in the journal Mayo Clinic Proceedings.

Source: Medline Plus

Maria Perez, Health Science Pre-Med

Student Blogger

College of Health Science

On Tuesday, March 8^th, we had the privilege of having Mr. Ryan Starling as our second guest speaker for the Distinguished Lecture Series. He has worked for San Bernardino City Fire for eleven years and currently holds the position of Engineer Paramedic. Along with his firefighter duties, he is responsible for conducting new-hire testing, new-hire background investigations, new-hire background investigations, new hire probationary training, department training and certifications, and is currently assigned to station headquarters on the tiller truck. Ryan has received multiple Letters of Accommodation for his actions with the department. Along with being a firefighter, he is also a Tactical Medic on the SWAT team with the San Bernardino City Police Department. He is responsible for the medical safety of his fellow officers in a tactical environment, serving high-risk warrants, and responding to barricaded suspects and hostage situations. Additionally, he is responsible for the medical training of the SWAT team and teaches Active Shooter classes to surrounding agencies with fellow members of his team.

Ryan spoke about his journey leading him up to where he is now. He attended and played baseball at CBU back when it was California Baptist College (CBC). He began his journey as an EMT, and then worked as an ER Tech at Parkview Hospital. He then applied for the fire academy and left CBC and his baseball career. He then continued working as a firefighter up in Northern California and then got married to his wife, Tracey. He then applied to come back to CBC and also applied to paramedic school. Just as he was getting ready to return to CBC, he got accepted to paramedic school and decided to leave CBC once again. After working as paramedic, he got an offer for San Bernardino Fire Department. He then got offered a position as a SWAT Tactical Medic and has been working there for many years now.

This all lead up to December 2^nd, the worst terrorist attack in the country since 9/11.

That morning Ryan and his team were at SWAT training doing active shooter training, ironically. They went through the first scenario, continued on to the second scenario and then they heard the dispatcher’s voice. Ryan and his team were 22 minutes away from the location of the San Bernardino shooting, according to Google Maps. They got there in 9 minutes.

He went on to mention that anyone in law enforcement was paged; they wanted to flood the area as fast as possible. After arriving at the scene in 9 minutes, they went around the building and encountered multiple people outside. Their job was to get inside and trying to find out where the shooter was, alongside gathering all kinds of information.

The day of the shooting, the innocent people that work at the Inland Regional Center were having their Christmas party. It is known that the suspect was in fact in attendance and left the room during the event, leaving a backpack on the table and returned 35 minutes later to commit this horrific attack.

Ryan remembers hearing screams, multiple cries, food on the table, water falling from the ceiling because the fire alarms had been pulled, the smell of gunpowder and small trails of blood coming in to the room along with the water. He continued through the room, trying to find the threat. The SWAT team continued upstairs and Ryan stayed down stairs to begin triaging and treatment for over 40 patients by himself. He continued on by going through treating and triaging patients. His job is to do the greatest good for the greatest amount of people.

That day they treated and transported 26 patients. The goal is to get a critical patient to a surgeon in under an hour, and they were able to get all critical patients to a surgeon within 57 minutes. Getting patients to a trauma center within an hour is critical; after an hour, the survival rate goes down to 50%.

What Ryan truly emphasized and repeated is that the county workers were the true heroes that day. There had been a course taught in what to do in case of an active shooter at that same location a year prior, and the workers had remembered their training and saved many lives that day.

On December 2^nd, we lost 14 innocent lives due to this horrifying terrorist attack that happened in our own backyard.

Ryan is a firm believer that God was present in the whole situation. In fact, when they advised the nearest level 1 trauma centers about bringing in critical patients, they found out that Loma Linda Medical Center and Arrowhead Regional Medical Center had all their surgical rooms cleared that day and that never happens. Although the media never played the footage of Ryan saying God was with them that day, he truly believed that. After he realized the media was not going to play anything with the word ‘God’ involved, he continued by saying it was divine intervention.

After treating the patients on the scene, Ryan was also part of the team that was on the BearCat (an armed vehicle) that was called to rescue an officer that was down. That happened during the shootout with the suspect and several law enforcement officials. Ryan and the team did not have to rescue the officer after all, because he self rescued and continued in the shootout with the suspect. The suspects eventually passed from their wounds from the shootout. They were a husband and wife and had this completely planned out; they were ready to go to war and were extremely trained and prepared. As for many of us, Ryan too agrees that this was one of the most horrific days he’s had to encounter in his career, thus far. He really believes that multiple lives were saved that day thanks to the many law enforcement officials and county employees remembering their training and putting that into motion.

In case of an active shooter in your premises, run out of the premises as fast as you can. If you cannot run, hide and pray, lock all the doors and do not open the door for anyone. If you cannot hide, then fight. Fight with all that you have, throw things, distract the shooter. This can delay the active shooter and prevent many lives from being taken.

In closing, Ryan left the students with some words of wisdom:

“Never make rash decisions, always sleep on things, listen to people, look people in the eyes. Remember that please and thank you’s go a long way. In everything that you do let the Lord be a light through you. Always lead by example and let the Lord’s light shine through you. People will notice the difference. Even if you have a horrible boss, remember that you are a servant of God and do everything to the best of your ability. You have the ability to impact and save lives so continue to push hard and improve yourself in education and the field that you are in.”

What a truly impactful and inspiring lecture. Thank you Mr. Ryan Starling for your service and for your willingness to come speak to our students about what happened on December 2^nd. We would also like to express our thanks to all the law enforcement individuals that partook in protecting our safety that day and everyday.

Maria Perez, Health Science Pre-Med

Student Blogger

College of Health Science

Did you know that your optometrist can save your life? Some diseases such as diabetes and high blood pressure can be detected by an optometrist during a comprehensive eye exam.

This March we are joining in bringing awareness and reminding everyone about how important it is to schedule regular comprehensive eye examinations. These examinations may detect eye health problems, vision difficulties, and general health issues.

Eye examinations are not just important for adults, but also for children. There are several different ways to check a child’s vision that are used depending on the child’s age. Starting at birth, a baby’s eyes should be examined for possible signs of congenital eye problems.

While only 4 out of 100 children have amblyopia, also known as a lazy eye, the only way for it to be caught early is with a thorough eye examination. Early detection of amblyopia can help prevent permanent vision loss. In honor of Save Your Vision Month, please schedule yours and your children’s eye exams today.

On Tuesday, February 16th, Dr. Nena Sanders, Vice Provost for the College of Health Sciences at Samford University, kicked-off the spring semester Distinguished Lecture Series by touching on the importance of interprofessional education (IPE) in the healthcare field. She began by having the students think about what going on a dream vacation entails; where are we going? what do you need to pack? how are we going to get there? are we there yet? “You have to know where you’re going in order to get there, so why are we going?” she said.

In order to increase patient outcomes, quality and safety, to decrease costs, to improve the shortage of health care providers, to create changes in financial issues and reimbursement, to integrate health care delivery models, and to increase utilization of non-physician providers, interprofessional education is vital.

The IPE journey began when the Institute of Medicine’s (IOM) published the report Health Professions Education: A Bridge to Quality in 2003. This was truly where the idea of IPE was born and when professionals noticed how impactful this could be. Interprofessional education leads to collaborative practice which leads to improved health outcomes.The IPEC reports 4 competency domains: value and ethics, roles and responsibilities, interprofessional teamwork and team-based care, and interprofessional communication practices.

There are three stages of competency development. The first one is exposure, which is the introductory step. The second one is immersion, this is the development and growth stage. The third one is competence, this step is the ‘entry-to-practice’ stage.

As we kept learning about what it will take to reach this IPE journey, Dr. Sanders asked a good question: “What should we pack?”

The first thing is administrative vision and support, followed by IPE training and professional development. Another important thing is faculty buy-in and faculty workgroups charged with developing the vision and mission, core curriculum, and expected student and faculty competencies. Lastly, common IPE framework, a curriculum reflecting integrated healthcare disciplines, and facilities that foster a collaborative environment.

IPE is when students from two or more professions learn about, from, and with each other to enable effective collaboration and improve health outcomes. IPE is a necessary step in preparing a collaborative “practice-ready” health workforce that is better prepared to respond to local health needs. Collaborative practice occurs when multiple health workers from different professional backgrounds provide comprehensive services by working with patients, their families, caretakers and communities to deliver the highest quality of care across settings. This also allows health workers to engage any individual whose skills can help achieve local health goals.

“How are we going to achieve this? You. You’re going to learn differently, you’re going to practice differently and you’re going to have a different sense of accountability about caring for those individuals. For the first time in healthcare, we can redefine outcomes for patients, and make their lives better,” she said.

What a great and inspiring lecture to kick-off the spring semester. Thank you, Dr. Sanders!

Maria Perez, Health Science Pre-Med

Student Blogger

College of Health Science

Did you know that approximately 150 million Valentine’s Day cards are exchanged annually making Valentine’s Day the second most popular card-sending holiday, after Christmas?

Well now you know… but what is the real story behind romantic holiday?

After much research on the web, there isn’t one truly ‘certain’ story behind Valentine’s Day. Many talk about how the Catholic Church recognizes at least three different saints named Valentine, all of whom were martyred. One legend notes that Valentine was a priest who served during the 3^rd century in Rome. At that time, the emperor, Claudius II decided that the better soldier were those that were single, therefore he outlawed marriage for young men. Valentine, realizing that this was wrong, continued to perform marriages for young lovers in secrecy, but when the emperor found out about his actions, he was imprisoned and ordered to be put to death. Apparently, an imprisoned Valentine actually sent his first “valentine” after he fell in love with a young girl who visited him during his confinement. Before his death, he wrote his very last letter to her and signed it “From your Valentine”, an expression which we still use today. Although, most of the legends are ambiguous, most of them display Valentine as a sympathetic, heroic and romantic figure. It is because of this reputation that Valentine would become one of the most popular saints in England and France.

This brings me to talk about the unconditional love that we have been given, even though we didn’t deserve it. I am talking about God’s everlasting love for us. God loved us so much that He sent His one and only son to die on the cross for us, so that we may be saved from our sins. Do you know how much love that is? I know that we have heard this many times but have you truly experienced that love from our Savior? If you know about it, but don’t know Him, I encourage spending time in His Word and spending daily time with Him in the morning. I pray that you will come to know his everlasting love and grace, and that His blessing would pour upon you. As this Valentine’s Day approaches, let it not be just about chocolate, candy, roses, and notes, but also about sharing God’s love with those around you and learning more about Him.

As you go throughout your day, reflect on this verse and feel God’s love:

John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him, should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

Maria Perez, Health Science Pre-Med

Student Blogger

College of Health Science