July 2011
“When kids are not able to see or are in pain, we provide on-site medical services to get them back in the classroom, which in turn can improve their academic performance. That’s the whole point of having the Ronald McDonald Care Mobile, a 40-foot-long medical vehicle affiliated with Ronald McDonald House Charities of Tampa Bay and the University of South Florida Department of Pediatrics. There is one student I think about who had vision problems. He was a high schooler, from outside the United States, and was failing all of his courses miserably. He’d had surgery in a developing country, and the nurse on the van saw some abnormalities. She referred him to a specialist who uncovered a condition that was easily repaired. That child’s vision improved dramatically. It was all free, and his grades moved from Ds to As as a result of the intervention. It took various outreach efforts to expand funding for Care Mobile services, but you know you’re doing the right thing when you see the faces of these children and their big smiles.”
—Lisa Kern ’10, Master of Science in Nursing (MSN) graduate, Supervisor for Health Services, Pasco County, Fla., School Board
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