HARDWICK – Orleans Southwest Supervisory Union (OSSU) is partnering with Northern Counties Health Care (NCHC) through the Hardwick Area Health Center (HAHC) to provide enhanced on-site health services to students.
Through this new School-Based Health Center (SBHC), OSSU healthcare provider Jen Olsen, MSN, APRN, FNP-C, will be available to OSSU students two days each week during the school day, while school is in session, to assess, diagnose and provide treatment for urgent health concerns.
“This program has been in the works for almost two years and we finally are ready to kick off in early November,” OSSU Superintendent David Baker said. “The only investment we had to make was in Telehealth machines and those were purchased with grant funds.”
School-based Health Services is a national movement. Usually it involves a partnership with a local health center and they provide the care. OSSU already had a nurse practitioner on staff who could diagnose simple acute illnesses like strep throat and ear infections and prescribe medications.
Baker said, “This is going to save enormous amounts of time and help our most vulnerable children who need to be in school. This should prevent prolonged absences by diagnosing and treating early.”
Olsen has been the nurse at Craftsbury Academy and Craftsbury Elementary Schools since 2021, saying she looks forward to this new position. Her biggest hope is that it “will increase attendance, promote health equity amongst all schools and eliminate barriers to care. “It should help parents too, by allowing them to stay at work and avoid transporting students to other care providers unless the need is too great for Olsen to handle, she says.
Special telehealth equipment has been ordered for each school that includes otoscopes to examine ears, blood pressure cuffs and stethoscopes that will allow Olsen to examine patients remotely when needed.
The program’s planned start date is November 4.
All OSSU students may enroll and do not need to be patients of NCHC to use SBHC services. Families will need to submit the registration form to participate, but children who are already Northern Counties Health Care patients do not need to complete the paperwork.
Paul Fixx is editor of The Hardwick Gazette and lives in Hardwick.
