Indiana University students from across IU’s multiple campuses are helping address some of the state’s most pressing health challenges by serving communities across Indiana.

Data from a report from the IU Center for Rural Engagement shows that 70% of counties in south-central Indiana have identified access to health care as a top community need. U.S. News and World report has ranked Indiana in the bottom fifth for health care — 41st of the 50 states.

IU students are helping one Hoosier at a time through annual health clinics that offer free screenings to underserved communities across the region.

Overseen by Britney Arce, a clinical assistant professor at the IU School of Nursing in Bloomington, the clinics connect nurses in training with community members in partnership with the IU Center for Rural Engagement and Southern Indiana Community Health Care, a regional health care provider.

“We see these events as us being able to be an extension to the primary-care offices,” said Arce, whose second-year nursing students participate in the clinics through a course. “The primary-care providers have a large patient load, and we see ourselves as helping bridge that gap between office visits.”

Established in 2018, the IU Center for Rural Engagement was created to improve the lives of Hoosiers by building durable partnerships between IU Bloomington and communities. Their work supports existing community projects and makes a transformative difference in student learning and community outcomes.

Over the past several years, the School of Nursing in partnership with the center have run rural clinics at locations like the Melton Public Library in French Lick — population, less than 2,000 — and the Solutions Center in Mitchell — population, less than 4,000. Every visitor to the clinic receives a basic blood panel, including key numbers, such as blood glucose and cholesterol. For an uninsured patient, Arce explained, a blood sugar test can normally cost upward of $150.

“Even basic numbers are valuable for telling people what they need to know, to understand if they’re at risk for developing diabetes, or if they are getting in range,” she said. “It provides people an opportunity to start making lifestyle changes now instead of waiting until more serious issues arise.”

The clinics also offer students the chance to practice health coaching skills, which help patients understand their personal health data in a meaningful way. A registered nurse oversees each student during these interactions.

Participants whose results raise any red flags are also invited to speak one on one with a registered nurse, who can help set up a primary-care appointment or other access to care, Arce added.

For example, Arce shared a story about a veteran in French Lick who had not seen a doctor in years due to a lack of transportation. After calling a local doctor’s office, IU clinic volunteers learned that the patient’s veteran’s insurance would cover care at the physician’s office since there was no VA hospital near his address.

Extending their efforts, IU’s outreach activities have gone beyond the rural health clinics. In partnership with the Center for Rural Engagement, IU School of Nursing students led by Sonita Ball, a lecturer at the school, have also presented wellness fairs across the state. Other contributors to the fairs include IU schools and programs in both Bloomington and Indianapolis. The participants come from the IU School of Public Health, the IU School of Social Work, the IU School of Optometry, the IU School of Health and Human Sciences, the IU College of Arts and Sciences, and the IU Interprofessional Practice and Education Center.

In collaboration with the Bloomington Lions Club and the Bloomington Salvation Army, the IU School of Optometry hosts the MLK Day of Vision, an annual event on Martin Luther King Jr. Day that offers free comprehensive eye exams and prescription glasses to low-income residents without vision insurance in Monroe County.

The IU School of Dentistry organizes monthly trips to rural northern Indiana to provide dental services to children in the Amish community, as well as children in area shelters for people experiencing homelessness and for victims of domestic violence. The school also delivers low-cost dental care, including basic services and 24/7 support for emergencies, at the Fritts Clinical Care Center in Indianapolis. On average, IU dental students and supervising faculty treat more than 19,000 people at the school’s clinics each year.

Led by the IU School of Medicine, the IU Outreach Clinic provides free services, such as medical exams, chronic disease management and physical therapy, as well as dental services like cleanings, fillings and extractions, and access to social workers and legal aid, to underrepresented populations in Indianapolis. Other IU Indianapolis schools that contribute to the clinic are the IU School of Dentistry, IU School of Nursing, IU School of Social Work, IU School of Health and Human Sciences, and IU Robert H. McKinney School of Law.

As part of the school’s Physically Active Residential Communities and Schools program, students in the IU School of Health and Human Sciences provide low-cost personal training, fitness assessments and classes through the John Boner Neighborhood Centers, a social services and community development organization.

In addition, IU is taking steps to tackle Indiana’s health care shortages at the institutional level.

This includes a commitment from the IU School of Nursing to increase enrollment significantly across its graduate and undergraduate levels. The school, which has 1,700 undergraduates across three campuses, enrolled its largest first-year class for the second year in a row with 79 newly admitted students in Fort Wayne, 120 in Bloomington and 247 in Indianapolis for the 2024-25 academic year.

At IU Indianapolis — the home of the majority of the university’s health professional programs — over 90% of graduates stay in Indiana, and 62% plan to stay in Indianapolis.

Moreover, IU trains more than 80% of the state’s dentists, and about 32% of the medical school’s graduates chose to remain in Indiana for residency training. These include graduates of its rural medicine education training program, 21 of whom practice as primary-care physicians in rural counties, 61 in medically underserved areas and 58 in counties with designated health professional shortages.

Through investments in its community outreach and academic programs, IU is contributing to a healthier state and training the next generation of health care workers.

For more information, visit https://www.iu.edu.