Making Appointments

You can make appointments at Student Health and Counseling Services (SHACS) by phone or by using our new, on-line, OpenCommunicator site.  To make an appointment by phone, call SHACS at x3230 (641/269-3230 off campus).

The following types of appointments can be scheduled on line:

  • Nursing appointments
  • Initial, or "intake," counseling appointments

If you are attempting to make an appointment on line and you do not see the type of appointment you need at a time that works for you, please call SHACS. 

Any type of nursing, counseling, or psychiatric appointment can also be scheduled by calling SHACS.

Your first nursing appointment of the year will take up to 30 minutes.  Thereafter, nursing appointments may take up to 15 minutes.  Some testing appointments can take longer.  Counseling appointments are 45 minutes in length.  Psychiatric evaluation appointments take 45-60 minutes;  medication management appointments are 15 minutes long.

Please note that in order to schedule an appointment that addresses your concerns in a timely fashion, you may need to rearrange your schedule (i.e., miss part or all of a class, meeting, or other activity).  Depending on the nature of your syptoms or discomfort, sometimes it will be important to give priority to taking care of your physical and/or mental health.

Cancelling Appointments

If you know that you will be unable to keep an appointment at SHACS, please notify us at least 24 hours in advance. This will allow us to use that time for another student. 

If you become ill and need to cancel a counseling appointment less than 24 hours in advance, we understand. In such instances, please cancel your counseling appointment but consult by phone with one of our nurses about how you are feeling.

If you fail to cancel and do not attend a psychiatric appointment, you will be charged a "no-show" fee:  $50 for a missed medication management appointment, $200 for a missed psychiatric evaluation appointment.  This covers SHACS' cost for the psychiatrist's time.  However, instead of charging you, we would much prefer to have you cancel the appointment in good time, reschedule if you would like, and make your cancelled appointment available to another student.