The annual Sistrunk Festival, sponsored by the Sistrunk Historical Organization, was held on February 25, 2017 in Fort Lauderdale. The Festival is held in honor of one of the first African-American physicians of Broward County, Dr. James Sistrunk. The Festival stands true to the mission statement of the organization “To celebrate the historical and cultural richness, and contributions of people of African descent and their impact on the global community.” The Festival sponsored a parade, local and national entertainment; family-centric activities along with free health screenings offered by NSU faculty and students.
For the past 10 years, students of the Physical Therapy (PT) Department at Nova Southeastern University have participated in the Festival under the leadership of Bini Litwin, PT, DPT, PhD, MBA. This year, as in the past, PT students collaborated with Occupational Therapy(OT) and Pharmacy students to actively engage in providing essential community services to the residents of South Florida. Abiding by NSU’s mission statement and core values “Innovation” and “Community,” faculty and students of the Health Professions Division provided medical screenings to the Sistrunk community.
Festival goers that visited the NSU booth received free health screenings that included: blood pressure, body mass index, posture analysis by the 5 Physical Therapy students supervised by PT faculty, Annabel Nunez-Gaunaurd, PT, PhD and Shilpa B. Gaikwad, PT, MPTh, PhD; developmental screenings by OT students led by OT faculty Dr. Nicole Quint, DR. OT, MOTR/L and medication counseling by Pharmacy students, Victor Liang and Cindy Cuello under the supervision of pharmacy faculty Devada Singh, PharmD, RPh, CDE. Twenty-seven individuals between 13 to 88 years old received physical therapy health screens, with those whose results were outside the normal range for age and gender advised to follow up with their physician. Those screened were also provided a variety of educational handouts related to diet, exercise and general wellness guidelines and given NSU faculty contact information for follow up questions regarding NSU services.
Participation in this annual event enables faculty and students from NSUs Health Professions Division to apply newly acquired skills and expertise in a ‘field’ environment. While promoting healthy behaviors to the community as a whole.