At the Core of Care is back with a new special series highlighting access to care. In this episode, PA Action Coalition Executive Director Sarah Hexem Hubbard speaks with three school nurses in Pennsylvania about their experience as a school nurse during the pandemic.

Tracey Glynn-Roulinavage, a registered nurse with more than twenty years of experience, works within the Wilkes-Barre Area School District in northeastern Pennsylvania. She transitioned from acute care hospitals to school nursing four years ago and currently works at Heights Murray Elementary School.

Wendy Robison is a certified school nurse within the Western Beaver County School District in western Pennsylvania. She is the recipient of the 2021 School Nurse Excellence Award from the Pennsylvania Association of School Nurses and Practitioners (PASNAP). In addition to working as a school nurse, she serves as a nurse practitioner in an urgent care clinic during weekends, holidays, and the summer.

Diane Shannon is a school nurse at Kennett Middle School in southeastern Pennsylvania and has been a school nurse the past 23 years. She is also the nurse coordinator for the Kennett Consolidated School District in Chester County and served as the district’s pandemic coordinator this past year, having recognized for her work as a nurse leader with the 2021 School Nurse Excellence Award from PASNAP.

Throughout this episode, these three nurses disclose how their experience from this past year and their work before becoming a school nurse helped them respond to the pandemic’s demands on schools.

School Nurses’ Resilience Through The COVID - 19 Pandemic

At the Core of Care is back with a new special series highlighting access to care. In this episode, we continue our coverage of school nursing as it remains an under-recognized and under-resourced field. 

Erin Maughan, a former school nurse, and leading school nurse researcher, shares her perspective with us. Erin is the Director of Research at the National Association of School Nurses (NASN). She previously taught public health nursing at Brigham Young University. As Research Director at NASN, she is working to build up the research infrastructure around school nursing to advance the field, including efforts to increase and standardize data collection that will ultimately help shape future practice and policy.

More Research Needed To Advance School Nursing

In this episode, we spend time with Dr. Barbara Todd to discuss the role of mentorship and education in nurse practitioner training. Dr. Todd shares her personal clinical and teaching experience and emphasizes the importance of diversity in the workforce to support nurse practitioners who work in underserved communities.

Dr. Barbara Todd is an experienced nurse practitioner certified in both family practice and acute care. She currently holds a leadership position as the Director of Practice and Education Advanced Practice at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania (HUP). Dr. Todd also teaches at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing and is a senior fellow at the Center for Health Outcomes and Policy Research.

Moving the Needle on Nurse Practitioner Education and Training

In this episode, we speak to Andrea Vettori, a nurse practitioner, and Executive Director of Sanctuary Farm. Sanctuary Farm consists of several growing lots that were previously abandoned and neglected in the North Philadelphia neighborhood of Sharswood. The organization helps meet a wide range of needs around nutrition, wellness, social and economic justice, and community safety. Andrea shares how she got into nursing and how Sanctuary Farm is a form of community-based health care.

Sanctuary Farm Nursing In The Open Air

In this episode, we venture to Pennsylvania’s Coal Region to learn how some health systems are working to expand access to dental care and improve oral health for children in underserved areas. The shortage of pediatric dentists has underscored the need for preventative care since long before the pandemic exacerbated it. 

We’ll hear from nurses and dentists delivering care in rural counties, as well as advocates working on the issue across Pennsylvania. 

Family nurse practitioner Tammy Lobach shares the challenges faced by her patients. Most of them rely on Medicaid or state insurance for medical coverage, but relatively few dental practices accept public insurance. Internet accessibility is another hurdle. 

Kelly Braun is a dental hygienist and the dental delivery systems coordinator for the Pennsylvania Office of Rural Health, where she manages trainings for primary care providers and other initiatives to improve dental health. She also oversaw the Medical Oral Expanded Care initiative (MORE Care) to train nurses and other primary care providers in preventative dental care. Launched by the DentaQuest Partnership for Oral Health Advancement, MORE Care programs have been implemented in rural Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Colorado, and Oregon during the past several years. 

Jessica Brennan, a public health dental hygiene practitioner, and Dr. Soumaya Bendjilali, are part-time specialists at the St. Luke’s Miners Hometown Federal Rural Health Clinic in Tamaqua, Pennsylvania. They relate their experiences working at the clinic’s relatively new dental office, which opened in 2019. 
Helen Hawkey is the Executive Director of the Pennsylvania Coalition for Oral Health. She explains how the coalition’s mission expanded from increasing access to fluoridated water to working with a diverse group of leaders on multiple initiatives to improve oral health across the state. 

A statewide coalition has documented successes in recent years in provider recruitment, running mobile clinics, school-based sealant programs, expanding dental screenings in primary care settings and more. 
With COVID-19 compounding the shortage of dentists, those solutions have taken on more significance but might not be enough to head off the crisis some say could lie ahead. 

Our producer Emily Previti recently talked to providers about how they’re navigating obstacles from transportation to water supply and food insecurity to cultural norms to broadband availability.

Pennsylvania’s Dental Deserts: Preventative Oral Healthcare in the Coal Region

This is the first of two episodes highlighting access to culturally competent care, specifically LGTBQ+ inclusive care. In this first episode, we’re featuring an in-depth healthcare consumer panel focused on strategies to improve LGBT health outcomes. 

Adrian Shanker moderated the panel during Pennsylvania’s Healthcare Mosaic Conference: Advocacy and Equity in Action from earlier this year. Panelists Alisa Bowman and Preston Heldibridle share the lived experiences of LGBTQ people accessing healthcare. 
Adrian Shanker is the founder and Executive Director of the Bradbury-Sullivan LGBT Community Center in Allentown, Pennsylvania. He is the editor of the book, Bodies and Barriers: Queer Activists on Health. 

Alisa Bowman is an advocate for trans youth of all ages and the trans community in general.  She is a parent of a trans child and co-author of the book, Raising the Transgender Child.

Preston Heldibridle is the Executive Director of the Pennsylvania Youth Congress (PYC). He is an advocate in Harrisburg and across the state for issues of importance to LGBTQ+ youth, especially for trans and non-binary youth.

LGBTQ+ Inclusive Care, Part 1 Personal Experiences

At the Core of Care shares the incredible stories of nurses in Pennsylvania and the people that they help. Learn about innovative ways that nurses are making a difference in so many lives every day. This podcast was created by the Pennsylvania Action Coalition.

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