Exercise is Medicine-On Campus® (EIM-OC), a global health initiative managed by the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM), aims to make physical activity assessment and promotion a standard in clinical care, connecting health care with evidence-based physical activity resources for people everywhere and of all abilities.
The Mizzou EIM-OC chapter includes students from the nutrition and exercise physiology and dietetics programs and provides them the opportunity to practice working with real clients in professional settings and on-campus settings. EIM-OC’s goal is to create a campus culture that embraces physical activity as a part of daily life, especially since recent studies have shown that more than half of college students do not meet the minimum, physician-recommended 150 minutes of moderate activity per week.
Through the club, students get to help real health professionals with events around the Columbia community, in addition to their campus outreach. In February, EIM-OC students helped with the Heart Fair at the Rec, where they got to work alongside MU health professionals as they worked with clients. The health professionals gave them rave reviews, and the students got to implement their classroom learning to help people.
“Being able to talk to people in our future career fields and meeting people who are benefiting from our future career field is really interesting,” said Carter Bischof, club vice president and senior nutrition and exercise physiology major.
“We learn things at our events that we can’t quite conceptualize fully in the classroom,” said Anna Fairchild, club president and senior nutrition and exercise physiology major. “At the Heart Fair we got to work with real, practicing exercise physiologists and dietitians, and you don’t ever really know what the job is like until you’re sitting there talking to and assisting someone who is genuinely working in the field, so that is super eye opening.”
While events like the Heart Fair give EIM-OC members time with patients who came with health goals and a purpose, they also practice shorter interactions with students on campus, a group who might not be as interested in what EIM-OC has to offer and needs a quicker, more basic kind of message.
On April 22, members of EIM-OC practiced getting students invested in their own health through exercise by holding push up and grip strength tests in Speaker’s Circle, in addition to offering a survey that students could take to document how much exercise they get per week. Twenty-five students filled out the survey, which will also be posted around campus for the rest of the spring semester.
“As a nutrition and exercise physiology major, we’re learning about the benefits of exercise in every class we’re going to but not everyone is exposed to that,” said Fairchild. “For me, having an outlet to practice the things I’m learning in class and spread the knowledge to others on campus and in the community is really important.”
To learn more about EIM-OC, visit MU Engage.