A Day in the Life: Sara Wegwitz
When you enter the Jack Petersen Health Centre, you will be standing in a reception entrance filled with a half dozen students waiting to see a healthcare professional. This is the home of University Health Services. It’s also where Sara Wegwitz has been working for most of her career in health care.
Wegwitz, a 1998 graduate of the UVic nursing program, spent the first part of her nursing career getting clinical experience in a coronary/cardiovascular care unit in Phoenix, Arizona. She then moved to Vancouver where she obtained her critical care certification and worked in an ICU. In 2002 Wegwitz returned to Victoria, began teaching nursing at Camosun College and discovered a passion for educating. She returned full circle to UVic in 2005 as an RN health educator and advocate for healthy living at UVic.
I feel like it’s my M.O.,” she says, with a twinkle in her eye. “I’ve found something that I’m really passionate about that combines with my deep-seated desire to serve, contribute and make a difference in the lives of people.”
As UVic’s nurse educator, Wegwitz works with nursing students to promote healthy living and wellness on campus.
“Working with this demographic means I can reach young people at a formative stage of their lives,” she says. “And being healthy and well is the foundation for a life well-lived.”
Her mission to help people live healthier isn’t limited to her role at UVic. She also offers a community education program at the Burnside Gorge Community Centre called Tailor-making a Heathier You—Finding Your Fit, which gives participants a chance to explore their personal health and wellness, identify what is holding them back and try on different tools and strategies to find their personal health fit.
“My message is that being well and healthy is so easy and attainable for anyone,” she says. “It’s being sick, tired and stressed out that’s hard work. There are specific small things you can do over time that will add up cumulatively and lead to extraordinary results.”
In addition to collaborating with other members of student services units on initiatives and providing strategic to support to her director, a large part of what Wegwitz does is working with nursing students and other student groups on campus.
As I arrive to speak with her she is busy with two students putting together promotional packages for Sexapalooza, a three-day event Feb. 7–9 being put on by the UVic Students’ Society to raise sexual health awareness.
When not at work, volunteering for Leadership Victoria or socializing, Wegwitz is on her bike commuting to and from work or careening around Victoria.
“When I clip in, it’s like I’m four years old again,” she says, a smile spreading across her face. “The opportunity to be free, go fast and have fun—to have an adventure, experience nature…it’s a feast for the senses.”
She describes a trip she took nearly nine years ago—travelling alone by bike up the West Coast of Ireland—as the greatest vacation she’s ever had. “The people there are so friendly. They constantly apologized for the weather, but, being from Victoria, the rain didn’t bother me too much.”
University Health Services is expanding its population health approach with a number of programs, including the unveiling of the UVic Collaborative Eating Disorders Clinic later in February, a mood disorders clinic and a chronic care clinic. And check out the monthly Student Health 101 e-magazine, where this month, UVic students talk about healthy relationships: http://read101.ca/uvic.html
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