By Michele Hutchins, MBA,  Director of Community Relations

Some days the best medicine may simply be a hug, but on other days, it’s helping parents understand the right questions to ask to get their child the right care, at the time. From band aids and temperature taking, to setting the foundation for healthy lifestyle choices or helping families navigate the healthcare system, school nurses in SAU 48—the Pemi-Baker Regional School District— play a pivotal role in the lives of the students they care for every day.

Employed by Speare Memorial Hospital, each of the eight schools within SAU 48 has a designated school nurse.  They are passionate about their work, their school, and most importantly, their kids.  As Lynnda Parker, school nurse at Plymouth Regional High School, notes what she enjoys most about the job “is the relationship with the students.”    Lorraine Cain from Campton Elementary School agrees, saying, “As a school nurse I am a community lifeline for getting kids the care they need, and a resource for parents.”

Community is what makes the partnership between Speare and the SAU work so well according to SAU 48 Superintendent Mark Halloran.   “People care about each other,” says Halloran, “and when you have local people caring for each other’s children, the passion and care comes through.  Our school nurses are advocates on behalf of the kids. They provide that coordination between school, home, primary care and back again. ”

Halloran explains partnering with Speare for school nurses began about eight years ago.  Just as medicine has changed over the years, so too have family dynamics and the role of school nurses. As a result, schools have been asked to do more to help address and coordinate complex health and social needs, both nationally and by local providers.

“Not only do we have kids with medically fragile conditions, “Halloran says,” but care for many students extends to both before and after school.  Additionally schools have integrated lifestyle education from nutrition, vision, dental, and exercise into the curriculum, putting school nurses at the epicenter for public health.  Since our nurses also work at the hospital, they have relationships with local providers promoting better care coordination for students, and improved services for families.”

Denise Petryki, Kim Johnstone, Liz Mills and Brooke Wisner, the school nurses for Waterville Valley, Holderness Central, Thornton and Russell Elementary respectively, agree.  “We have the bigger picture perspective, and both providers and parents rely on us to help make sure kids get the right care.”

According to Michelle McEwen, president and CEO of Speare Memorial Hospital, the integrated approach to care coordination is in line with the direction of healthcare overall.  “Healthcare is shifting to engage patients in being more proactive in managing their own health, focusing on prevention and disease management which positively impact overall community health in the long term,” she says.  “Our school nurses have become an effective conduit between schools, families and providers, and a trusted resource for helping laying a foundation for healthy habits.”

McEwen references the partnership with SAU 48 to help reduce childhood obesity, as an example.  For the 2014/15 academic year school nurses are using elements of the Foundation for Healthy Communities statewide education campaign—5-2-1-0 Healthy NH— to instill in students and their families the importance of:

• Eating at least 5 fruits and vegetables a day.
• Limiting screen time to 2 hours or less
• Getting at least 1 hour of exercise every day.
• Restricting soda and sugar-sweetened sports drinks.

The 5-2-1-0 program not only ties into the hospital’s strategic goal of reducing childhood obesity, and vision to have the community achieve optimal heath, “It demonstrates the value of having a community hospital,” says Halloran.  “Other superintendents are envious of the relationship between our schools and the hospital.  Speare adds to our quality of life, and we are better for having it here.”