Student Health and Wellness (SHAW)’s Words of Welcome and Advice

HI, I’m Alexis Steele, operations manager at Student Health and Wellness, or as we say, SHAW. 

SHAW has many providers relative to the size of our campus. While most campuses have nurses and counselors, Grinnell goes beyond this to help meet the needs of our students. In addition to a great team of nurses, we have a physician’s assistant, called PA, on staff who can prescribe medications for basic concerns — saving you a trip to an off-campus clinic. And in addition to great team of counselors, we bring in supervised University of Iowa Counseling Psychology Doctoral students to add to our counseling offerings. We also partner with the University of Iowa to provide free telepsychiatry services. The wait time for our appointments is extraordinarily shorter than you will experience in most places.  

While most services in Grinnell can be accessed within walking distance, you will likely appreciate our free transportation to in-town appointments when you have a health issue. And two out of three pharmacies will deliver your prescriptions to our office!  

Finally, we are always thinking about how we can support you in potentially preventing the need for our services.  We invite students to share their input about how SHAW, and Grinnell College as a whole, can set up systems to benefit your wellbeing through our wellness and prevention program.

One piece of advice we have is to know what health insurance you have. SHAW can serve most of the common health issues that students have, though, on occasion, some issues require medical support off-campus. 

The costs of off-campus care can be confusing. We are happy to meet with you to talk through health insurance before or after your appointments, but knowing the basics ahead of time can save you some last-minute stress when you aren’t feeling well.

If you have a chronic condition or one that requires specialized treatment, make sure you know what is available in the city of Grinnell. We have a robust network of health providers for a community of our size, but some students struggle to receive the care they need when they must take three hours out of their day to travel to specialists beyond Grinnell for their care.

If you have any questions about your specific health situation, feel free to call us at 641-269-3230 or email us at shaw@grinnell.edu. We look forward to supporting your health and wellness at Grinnell!