CONTACT - Volume 9, Number 1
Parent Liaisons Join PCNC Staff

Shirley Schantz, Ed.D., ARNP
PCNC Director

The PCNC is expanding its services and everyone is very busy at all the school health offices. The nurse practitioners have added BMI screening to their schedules, and the number of students needing primary care is increasing every week. In order to provide more comprehensive services at our health offices, we now have five Parent Liaisons (PL), for each of the Catholic schools and one for Gratigny full service school. These PL's were employed with grants received from the Health Foundation of South Florida and the Florida Department of Health through the Florida KidCare insurance program.

A grant from The Allegany Franciscan Foundation provided the funds to implement the PL training program. Christine Steffey, MSN, ARNP has joined the PCNC staff as Parent-Liaison trainer and mentor. She is a graduate of Barry's nurse practitioner program and comes with experience in emergency nursing, pediatric nursing, and teaching. She is the primary teacher for the PLs and has facilitated their progress in this new and challenging position of Parent Liaison.

The PLs are Mercedes Sam at St. Monica's, Pamela Taylor at St. Francis, Veronica Hoyos-Pacheco at Corpus Christi, Esther Aubrey at St. Mary's, and Antoinette Delve at Gratigny. Their responsibilities include obtaining consents for the health offices; helping parents apply for KidCare, the Florida health insurance for children; conducting follow-up for the nurse practitioner for visits, prescriptions and referrals; conducting follow-up for students who are absent or tardy; assisting the nurse practitioner with screenings and immunizations; attending PTA meetings and health fairs; and locating community resources for the families.

These women have children in the schools, are part of the culture of the schools, and speak the language of the families. They come to us with varied abilities and talents, and experience in day care, an operating room, a pediatrician's office, and in social work situations. They are all eager to advance the services of the health offices. We are truly grateful for their enthusiasm and energy, and we look forward to an exciting year of expanding our school health services.