DPH Updates

Greetings from the School Health Unit!

The start of a new school year has always brought me excitement, anxiety, and a sense of a new beginning.  As a mom and a school nurse, for the last 30 years, my life has been structured around a school-year schedule.  Until now, I never appreciated just how comforting this routine and structure is for me personally.  This year everything feels different, and if it feels that way for me, I can only imagine how it feels for our school colleagues, students, and families.  Many of you haven’t had a break this summer.  We have all been immersed in case counts, death counts, PPE discussions, classroom and health room configurations, and all in a climate of concurrent massive social change.  This does not feel comforting; that anxious part of the new year is the prevailing feeling this year.  However, I feel ready.  I feel ready because I know I am not in this alone, and neither are you.  More than ever before, school nurses need each other; we need to share resources and information, we need to lift each other up when we are struggling, and sometimes just be an ear for other’s frustrations and fears.  We can model for others what we need for ourselves; connection, courage, and hope.

The Regional School Nurse Consultants and the MDPH School Health Unit are here for you.  However, please know we are experiencing an immense volume of email at this time, and in order to respond to yours in a timely manner we ask that you review current DESE guidance for answers, or check in with a nursing colleague, prior to emailing a question.

In this message I want to share a beginning schedule for the year; please know it is still under construction as we navigate this new world of virtual togetherness.  We will not be meeting in person for the foreseeable future; even if groups could be kept to gathering limits, bringing people together from different communities is just not a responsible practice at this time.  Also attached is a copy of the school insect repellent guidance that is dated, and contains author information, as requested.

Take good care,

Karen

 

Regional School Nurse Leader meetings (open to funded AND non-funded schools/districts; these will be held monthly this year)

REGION DATE TIME
  SEPTEMBER  
NORTHEAST 18 1PM-3PM
METROWEST/BOSTON 22 10AM-12N
WEST 23 10AM-12N
SOUTHEAST 24 10AM-12N
CENTRAL 25 1PM-3PM
  OCTOBER  
NORTHEAST 16 1PM-3PM
METROWEST/BOSTON 20 10AM-12N
WEST 21 10AM-12N
SOUTHEAST 22 10AM-12N
CENTRAL 23 1PM-3PM

Registration is open for the September Regional Meetings. Here is the link: https://www.bucme.org/node/1066.

 

CSHS state meetings (these will be shorter, webinar-style meetings)

10/8/2020 Thu 3:30‐5:30

12/10/2020 Thu 3:30‐5:30

2/25/2020 Thu 3:30‐5:30

5/13/2020 Thu 3:30‐5:30

We may open these up to ALL districts (stay tuned) and they will also be recorded.

Upcoming trainings

We are pleased to inform you that the Foundations of School Nursing Practice course is open!  A link to the course can be found here:  Foundations of School Nursing Practice https://www.bucme.org/node/1050.  This blended course is completely online and self-paced, and also offers live networking sessions throughout the year.

Medication Manager training is ongoing and registration for both parts of this required training for medication delegation registration are open here on the BU SHIELD website.  Additionally, we are offering one more session on the new process for delegation registration on September 1, 2020, 1:30-2:30 pm; registration is here.

SBIRT training, which is also a blend of self-paced and live skills-building, is up and running throughout the school year.  More information can be found here.

Mandated screenings training will hopefully be ready to access by the end of September.

This year our Clinical Update will be focused on asthma, and we are working with our colleagues at BU and the MDPH Asthma Prevention and Control Program to provide a multipart, webinar-style, program on four afternoons in November; more information to come soon

MUCH THANKS TO BEV HEINZE-LACEY AND HER TEAM AT BU SHIELD for the tireless work of transitioning all of our programs to online versions; no small feat!

Karen Robitaille, MBA, MSN, RN, NCSN

<she, her, hers>

Director of School Health Services

Division of Child/Adolescent Health and Reproductive Health

Massachusetts Department of Public Health

250 Washington St. 5th floor, Boston, MA 02108

karen.robitaille2@state.ma.us

617-624-5427