As Cincinnati Public Schools was undergoing a restructuring process, a lot of my work within two schools was focused on helping nurses with their student database. However, I wanted to create my own ideas to help take some weight off their shoulders as well.
For context, the two schools I was working at, Rockdale Elementary and South Avondale Middle School, were changing to become a preK-5 and a 6-8 schooling system. This meant that the school-based health clinics now had different amounts of staff per students, health assistants unfamiliar with high-risk kids (those with chronic illness) and much more administrative work that takes time away from direct child planning.
The school health assistant is a different, but attached, office than the community clinic. It was difficult to photograph well for this project, as keeping the privacy of patients was a top priority. However, below you can see a visual of what students first see a school health assistant. I learned through conversations with the health center staff that there lies a current ambiguity about when students would head over to the school health assistant or the community clinic – as time passes hopefully this system becomes more concrete.
My time spent in the clinic was helping with the new student rosters for the fall, keeping count of medications we had on hand for students of different illness, checking which students had files for consent ready, and creating easy access sheets for nurses on which specific students need baseline checks when the school year starts.
As I spent more time with the equity center, I learned a large goal was to receive the proper medications on site and at home for students who required it. To achieve this, I spent a lot of time learning about the ins and outs of the school health system. Here, I was able to design a drug delivery system that was easy to track and follow once students were identified, and consent processes were cleared. If all goes well, 132 students with asthma will have rescue medication at home and at school this fall! If I had the opportunity to spend more time, I would have loved the opportunity to expand this to different sets of specific students (diabetes, mental health, etc.) or the broader youth community in different schools.
I also spent a few weekends and weekdays of the summer continuing serving my local community through the same health fairs I focused on in my Gateway summer! This was an awesome balance to some of the nitty gritty work I was doing behind the scenes for the school-based health centers, as it was completely community facing. I focused on lung cancers, HPV cancers, and breast cancers at these health events. The one pictured is one of the nation’s largest black family reunions!
