Health Care for Students

Your educational journey is an exciting time. However, burnout, depression, and anxiety affect medical students and physicians at high rates. Therefore, it is vital to take proactive steps to reduce your risk of such conditions. That’s why KansasCOM has made supporting your health and wellness an integral part of your experience here.

At KansasCOM, our faculty and staff speak frequently to students about personal wellness and a commitment to maintaining health. You’ll engage in regular conversations about general wellness, how to assess personal wellness, and what steps to take to perform your best and stay healthy in a high-stress field.

Students of osteopathic medicine consciously choose a career field that is highly stressful—physician practices and decisions can mean life or death for patients. If you are struggling with your own personal and professional wellness, you may not meet your full potential and may only be able to provide suboptimal care. This could put your medical license and the lives of future patients at risk.

Wellness is a multidimensional state of being focused on an awareness of one’s personal health in a variety of elements:

• Environmental
• Occupational
• Physical
• Psychological
• Social
• Spiritual

The concept of wellness is very osteopathic in nature in that it focuses on the total person and explores the relationships among the various dimensions of wellness. Understanding the interrelatedness and interconnectivity of the various dimensions is important to achieving comprehensive wellness.

To ensure optimal support for the wellness of our students, we have established several resources unique to KansasCOM:

• Mayo Clinic Partnership
  KansasCOM has secured a partnership with the Mayo Clinic to offer our students a state-of-the-art, innovative wellness curriculum as well as regular wellness assessments that provide students with consistent feedback on their perceived personal wellness.
• Regular Wellness Assessment
  Students will take and receive feedback using the Mayo Clinic’s Well-Being Index, a tool that compares individual wellness levels to the general population. Students with wellness concerns can then access Mayo Clinic resources to reduce the potential impact of negative results.
• Wellness Committee
  At KansasCOM, we believe that student wellness initiatives should come from students themselves. Therefore, the Office of Student Affairs hosts monthly wellness meetings with student leaders to discuss student wellness concerns and create programming to enhance the student experience overall.
• Spiritual Room
  We invite you to reflect and rejuvenate in our interreligious/nondenominational spiritual room. We have provided resources grounded in different faiths and traditions to support religious literacy and promote interfaith engagement toward a more inclusive, just, and engaged citizenry. Across our vibrant academic community, we encourage explorations of mystery, faith, and ritual. Our areas of focus are ethical reflection, mindfulness, contemplative practice, and community building based in dialogue and respect.

KansasCOM does not provide on-site student health services. However, students may seek health care through a group of off-campus clinical providers endorsed by KansasCOM. Students may seek medical services for acute care or short-term treatment at any of the endorsed providers.

Students are encouraged to establish a health care home with a primary care provider from within this endorsed network. If a student requires chronic care or needs to be seen during off hours, this provider should be contacted first. Clinic information is available to students from the Office of Student Affairs and Services. Students need to present their insurance card when seeing any health care provider. All expenses for health services are the responsibility of the student.

Local Wichita services

KansasCOM endorses the following practices for student health care needs:

All students are required to maintain personal health insurance during their enrollment at KansasCOM. Upon enrollment, students will be required to submit proof of personal health insurance through our online portal and request to waive the KansasCOM Student Health Insurance Policy (SHIP).

Every student’s health insurance policy should have these minimum coverage requirements:

• Insurance company must be based and operated in the United States.
• The plan must be ACA compliant.
• The plan must have a $3,000 deductible or less (for individuals).
• Students must have an unlimited plan maximum coverage level.
• The plan must be valid in the state of Kansas. (State-specific Medicaid may be accepted in some situations.)
• Policies that only cover catastrophic events are not acceptable.
• Policies that are provided through health care co-ops are not acceptable.

KansasCOM will be providing an affordable health insurance policy, with great coverage levels, to all students in the not-so-distant future. Please check back for more details.

Prior to beginning clinical experiences, KansasCOM students in their third and fourth year must submit proof of personal health insurance to Clinical Education. All students must report any break in coverage or change in health insurance while attending classes or during the third and fourth years to Clinical Education.

To help our students manage the intense environment and extra stress that they may experience during their academic journey, we have also established numerous mental health resources on and off campus.

On-Campus Services

The Office of Counseling Services is available to students from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Students may be seen free of charge by a licensed professional during those hours.

National Network of Services

Students can call ComPsych 24 hours a day, seven days a week to access mental health services in all 50 states. ComPsych refers students to local, licensed providers. ComPsych has a licensed professional on-call 24/7 and is available to students if they have a mental health emergency.

Local Wichita Services

Additional mental health care services are available in the Wichita metropolitan area including, but not limited to, the following:

Illness Prevention

We encourage you to take the following precautions to reduce risk of illness at home, school, and work, and to help you remain healthy and safe.

• Wash hands regularly with soap and warm water
• Vaccinate against illnesses, such as influenza and meningococcal meningitis
• Cough and sneeze into your elbow, not your hand, or use disposable tissues
• Avoid touching your eyes, nose, and mouth
• Practice good cleaning habits in your home and work environments, including disinfection of surfaces and weekly washing of bedding
• Keep cuts and scrapes clean and covered with a dry bandage
• Avoid contact with other people’s bandages and wounds
• Avoid sharing personal items, such as razors or towels
• Wipe off exercise equipment before and after use
• Obtain medical care as needed
• If you have a fever, remain at home and away from others until the fever has been gone—without the use of fever-reducing medicines, such as Tylenol or ibuprofen—for 24 hours

For more information about the prevention of disease, please visit the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s website at www.cdc.gov.