Female college athletes: a special population for health promotion in primary care

Female college athletes constitute a population with potential health problems beyond those of their age-mates. The expectations of the elite college athlete for academic and athletic accomplishment and for exemplary personal behavior, in combination with the typical developmental crises of late adolescence, create health risks. This presents the opportunity for effective health promotion as a part of primary care for these young women. The HealthCoRE Program at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center School of Nursing is an example of how a program approach using a community health perspective, in contrast to an episodic or an "array-of-available-services-cafeteria" approach, can affect the health of female college athletes. Program elements include identification of group and individual health risks and health information interests, individual physical examination including a gynecologic examination, individual client contracts for group and individual activities, and crisis intervention. Three years of experience with the program shows value both from the athletes' perspectives and from their coaches' perspectives. Nurse practitioners are the ideal providers for this type of service because of their knowledge of the community health approach, their skills in health promotion and disease prevention, and their use of health teaching as a therapeutic tool.