ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, February 17, 1996 TAG: 9602190004
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG
SOURCE: MICHAEL HALEY SPECIAL TO THE ROANOKE TIMES
The center, which is in its 20th year, had to turn away some students last month because registration numbers were so high. Patients are eager as well. Some commute from as much as 50 miles away to participate in the program
Michelle Cherwa, a senior, and Scott Thompson, a junior, are both in their first semester at the center. Already they feel comfortable with their roles helping the patients, and they look forward to the early morning training.
"It's a neat program," Thompson said. "It's the kind of thing you wish your grandparents would have. It's hard to think of it as a class."
The main exercise program in the gymnasium consists of a 15-minute group warm-up, 30 minutes of aerobic activity and a 10-minute group cooldown. Patients are never left alone during individual aerobic activity. They always have someone to talk to, whether they are walking or jogging laps around the outside of the gym or riding a stationary bike in the middle.
"The patients are very open to you and they know you are in here to help them," Cherwa said. "They start conversations just as eagerly as we do."
Bill Cooler, a retired faculty member at Tech, has high blood pressure which could not be lowered with medication. "I've been in the program since 1989 and plan on being in it for the rest of my life," Cooler said. Not having the program "would not only break my heart, it would give me a heart attack.
"Everybody is so nice. It's fun to come here. It takes the place of my students. They keep us encouraged and cheer us up. There's nothing like walking with a pretty girl."
Next door, a group is in the pool participating in the aquatics program. Students get in the pool with the patients and take part in the exercises.
Others work upstairs in the research laboratory, where patients are required to undergo a checkup every six months.
All aspects of the center are essentially run by exercise science students - half of them undergraduates, half of them in graduate school.
On Friday, the students brought in food and drinks, treating the patients to breakfast in celebration of National Cardiac Rehab Week. Other activities and outings are planned throughout the year.
"The students have been trained to do all the work," said Shala Davis, an assistant professor and director of clinical services at the center. Davis oversees the students with the help of a physician and a nutritionist. "It's amazing how quickly the students can pick it up if you force them to get hands-on. And the patients love it. They love that they're helping the students academically."
Undergraduates stay at the center for two semesters, rotating between the gym, pool and lab. Graduate students are here for two years, spending a semester at each location and then choosing where to spend their last semester.
"It's really good for students because they get experience in what they're going out into the world for," said Cody Sipe, a second-year graduate student who is the exercise leader in the gym. "The leaders here really encourage you to take initiative. This program makes a graduate student very likeable to a doctoral program or employer."
Virginia Tech is one of the few schools in the nation that allows undergraduates to assume a large role in patient care. "It's a unique situation when they get to practice what we teach them in the classroom," Davis said. "Students staff the whole lab. That's an experience they usually don't get at a university."
Perhaps the most significant skill students learn at the center is how to communicate with the patients.
"It's interesting," Davis said. "In the beginning of the semester students are hesitant and think, 'What am I going to say to an 80-year-old man?' But by the end of the semester they find they have a lot in common and they've forged friendships. After their class is over some students will still stop by at 5:30 to visit."
Patients are classified in one of two stages: Intervention, which is preventative in nature, and cardiac, in which heart disease has already occurred.
"Students see the whole spectrum of disease," Davis said. "One patient has had a five- or six-vessel bypass, one has had a heart transplant, some have just had their first heart attack.
"We have to make the patients feel as comfortable as possible, and the students know how to do that. We try not to focus on their disease. We try to be positive."
Bill Haas, 62, had a heart attack in 1975. "It did me in," he said. "They brought me back with paddles. I was in the hospital for 30 days."
At the time Haas lived in Durham, N.C. He spent 10 years in the cardiac rehab program at Duke University before moving to Blacksburg in 1986. He has been in Tech's program since then, overcoming bypass surgery in 1989 and hypertension since 1992.
"It's what's kept me alive," Haas said of the Tech program. "They have students here that they didn't have at Duke. They're a good addition. It brings to the patients a sense of staying young. When you're around young folks, you think young. There's camaraderie. It's excellent."
LENGTH: Long : 107 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: ALan Kim. 1. John Hughes (above) checks his pulse underby CNBthe watchful eyes of Laurie Bullock, a graduate student in cardiac
rehabilitation. 2. One of the class members hams it up for student
instructors (right) during a short break between laps in the pool.
Graduate students wear white shirts, while undergarduates wear red.
3. Blacksburg's Alice Johnson, assisated by a floating vest, wades
her way down the swim lane (inset photo). The 82-year old suffers
from arthritis in her knees, and had a hip replaced three years ago.
Gentle resistance and buoyancy in the pool not only facilitates
excercise but also gives much relief to her aching knees, allowing
her to still have mobility. 4. During a cardiac internvention class,
Erin Garvin (in blue, above) and Grace Tennant lead a group of
"students" through a session of water aerobics. 5. George Allen
(left) gets in his last lap in the pool for the morning before
checking on his pulse. color.