After joining the University of Delaware in 2016, Dr. Kelly Frick was appointed the medical director and director of Student Health Services in November 2021.
Her time at the university includes highlights like strengthening relationships with other university departments and the Delaware Division of Public Health, leading the school’s response to COVID-19 and eliminating barriers for students seeking health care.
Along with results seen campuswide and with individual patients, Frick’s staff recognize her as a great advocate for student needs and share an appreciation for her holistic approach to well-being.
Delaware Online/The News Journal spoke with Frick to discuss her role at SHS and learn about her recent efforts to make the department’s services more inviting.
Question: What made you interested in this line of work?
Answer: This age population in particular is a really unique patient population to be involved with on an individual health care provider level. Both in patient/provider relationships and on a more systemic level. It’s half about being a physician and then half about being an educator. One of the hallmarks of what we do within the well-being units is teaching students to be advocates for their own health. Students, especially UD students, are generally reallyinterested in their health and not only getting well, but then then staying well.Myfocus is always “get well, be well, stay well.” So, what can we help you with right now, but then more importantly, if we get to a better place health-wise, how can we maintain that?Wecan help you with those skills and then those skills you will use for the rest of your life. We often see students for the very first time in their very first visit to a healthcare provider without their parent or guardian, so it's also really inspiring to see the growth of our students.
How did you end up in your role at Student Health Services?
When I was in medical school, I actually had an interest in adolescent health and I did an elective when I was in medical school at a student Health Center. When I was in college, my student health center where I went to school was open 24/7, although this is no longer the norm, and the times that I utilized them were the middle of the night. I was just impressed with the accessibility and the level of care that the staff there provided. I knew how much that mattered to me as a student, so I thought that that's something I might want to go back into.
ChristianaCare, where I did residency, has an affiliate agreement with UD and SHS is part of their adolescent rotation. I absolutely, again, fell in love with it.I was in outpatient family medicine for a couple of years before a position opened up here and was lucky enough to get picked for that role. The team here at SHS is really just wonderful and truly, across the well-being units here, everybody is focused on student success. There’s a very collaborative environment here, so it’s a really rewarding place to work.
Can you explain the efforts to upgrade SHS waiting areas and add well-being vending machines to campus?
It really was listening to students and hearing their barriers to coming in for care and the way that the layout of our building had an impact on their experience here. We previously had somewhat partitioned services;different clinics would have different hours of operations andwaiting areas that were labeled as such. It was very obvious when someone was going to a psychiatry appointment, for example, because they were sitting in the psychiatry waiting room, or when somebody was going to a woman's health appointment, because they were sitting in the women's health waiting room.And when they checked in, this thing would pop up that would say, “women's health appointment.” We centralized all of our waiting spaces, so we now just have afirst floor and second floor waiting room; they're not labeled as anything. It's allowed students to feel more welcome and feel less exposed when they are coming in for a service that that they may perceive as embarrassing or outing or whatever it may be.
The vending machine, led by the Graduate Student Government, was done as part of a partnership throughout the well-being unit and, again, it was about increasing access to resources for students. In the vending machine there are over-the-counter medications, things like acetaminophen and ibuprofen, but there's also emergency contraception, condoms, and opioid rescue kits. Then there's things like thermometers, COVID and flu tests, and pregnancy tests. Those vending machines are in the student center, so they are able to access those spaces at much more convenient hours for them.
Editor’s note: Some of the questions in this story have been edited for clarity.
Got a tip or a story idea?Contact Krys'tal Griffin at kgriffin@delawareonline.com.
