Weiser Memorial Hospital has partnered with Cambridge and Midvale School Districts to provide part-time onsite nursing resources for their students. A project in the works for the past 2 years, participating nurses Hilary Kile and Cindy Wood, long-time employees of the hospital, had their first official site visits on Wednesday, November 17th.
The nurses will perform typical school nurse duties to help children while on site and will work within the same school policies that would apply to a full-time school nurse. Hilary Kile, RN has helped put the program together and will be one of the nurses working in the schools. “I am very excited to have the opportunity to connect with local students and families,” shared Kile. “There is no greater honor than to serve in our local communities.”
Kasey Davis, Community Health Education Coordinator for Weiser Memorial Hospital has been developing the hospital’s outreach program as a replication of a successful program established in Michigan. Kasey shared, “It all began after a conversation with the Superintendents. We were looking for ways to help the kids and staff in Midvale and Cambridge and I had a bit of an a-ha moment that we needed to try to put nurses in the schools.” Like many rural schools, neither district has a school nurse. Kasey continued, “I immediately started researching and found a program in an area similar to ours. I contacted the project lead there and she helped in the initial stages of our program development. I believe, and studies show, that there is a strong correlation between health and achievement in school. I’m so excited to provide another resource to help the kids in Cambridge and Midvale reach their greatest potential.”
Weiser Memorial Hospital will be providing a nurse 4 hours a week in each district to aid student health and relieve some strain on the school staff, nurses will also remain in their current roles at the hospital. This is a free service to the schools with the intent to help support local students. The school nurse program agreement will be reviewed annually by the school boards and hospital board as the program continues forward. Weiser Memorial Hospital offers many different kinds of outreach into the communities they serve in order to help people better understand their health and to help people live healthier.
