Avel eCare School Health delivers nursing coverage to K-12 schools to ensure immediate response to student needs. Using advanced telehealth technology, school staff can connect with a virtual nurse, dedicated to their building.
When students require care and the local nurse is not onsite, the school staff can press a button and connect with an experienced school nurse within minutes for help with:
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- Caring for unscheduled, urgent health care needs due to injury or illness
- Supporting daily diabetic care or other chronic care needs
- Overseeing medication administration
- Handling emergency or 9-11 situations, prior to EMS arrival
In addition to on demand care, our season school health nurses support:
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- Developing emergency health plans
- Providing advice for 504 and Individualized Education Program (IEP) plans
- Support mentoring of new school nurses
- Advise leadership on health policy issues
For students with ongoing behavioral health needs, schools can also access scheduled therapy sessions with our pediatric trained therapist.
Combined, these services empower school districts with the peace of mind knowing that experienced nurses are on stand-by to provide high quality care to students and support their district. This reduces the risk of liability, helps reduce the pressure on school staff, and saves costs and time.
Services
Avel eCare School Health assists schools by providing safe, cost-effective care for students via telemedicine. Avel eCare’s advanced two-way video technology and specialized telehealth stethoscope, otoscopes and exam cameras connect students and school staff to an experienced registered nurse within minutes.
Avel eCare School Health nurses can:
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- Provide back-up care when a school nurse isn’t available on-site
- Care for students with unscheduled, urgent health care needs due to injury or illness, including (COVID-19 symptoms, head lice, and anxiety
- Guide care for students with chronic or complex health conditions such as asthma, diabetes, life-threatening allergies and seizures
- Refer students to providers and connect families with local resources
- Support case management and serve as a point of contact for medication refills, side effects, order changes, nursing care to be provided at school, mental health needs, etc.
- Design school health programs and provide education to help maintain a safe environment and minimize health-related barriers to students’ ability to learn
- Develop emergency health plans
- Offer medical advice for 504 and Individual Education Program (IEP) plans
How it Works
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- A student experiences an injury, illness or needs assistance with a health condition such as diabetes, asthma, etc.
- The designated school staff, often the school secretary, utilizes a telehealth tablet to request support from Avel eCare School Health
- Typically, in less than 1 minute, Avel eCare School Nurses respond on video, and begin to provide care
- The Avel eCare School Health nurse completes the assessment of the student, leveraging thermometers, stethoscopes, otoscopes, exam cameras as appropriate
- Based on the assessment, the nurse will advise staff members on how to help the student, connect with parents, or checks back in with the student after a short observation period
- The nurse documents the encounter in the school information system, and closes the loop on any communication needs
- For students with identified, short-term, behavioral health needs, Avel eCare has a scheduled therapy program
Benefits
There are many benefits to having ready access to a school nurse, including decreasing their risk of liability when it comes to handling health concerns and delivering medications. Schools parntering Avel eCare have noted the following benefits:
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- Cost-effective staffing. For school buildings and districts that cannot hire a fulltime nurse, Avel eCare represents an affordable, full-day solution. We deliver a positive ROI for buildings frequently leveraging temporary or substitute staffing, or for those with unfilled vacancies.
- Nurse Staff Support. Many districts are facing significant nursing shortages. We support these staff by taking on some of daily student care, so they can focus on the students and their needs and spend less time in the car between buildings. For nurses new to schools, we provide ongoing mentoring and collegial support to help them grow in their practice.
- Office Staff Support. Schools revolve around doing their best for students. We work with office staff to receive training to safely administer medication and take the burden off them making decisions to send children home or communicate with parents.
- Improved Absenteeism. Post COVID-19, we have supported schools in improving the number of children sent home ill. Currently, 90% of our calls result in a return to class rate.
- Improved Disease Management. We work with our youngest diabetic students multiple times each school day, helping them count carbs, track their blood sugar, and administer insulin. We are so proud to continue to see measurable improvements in their health and readiness to learn.
- Support for Students with Behavioral Needs. Some students can benefit from a series of scheduled appointments with a therapist. Our data has demonstrated improvements in reported feelings of sadness or depression as well as improvements in classroom behaviors.
Avel eCare School Health Testimonials
School nurses play an integral role in ensuring that students are healthy and ready to learn. After identifying a need for better access to our nursing services across our large school district, Avel eCare worked with us hand in hand to develop a custom solution and pilot the eCare School Nurse project, which dramatically increased our students’ access to a school nurse. In the short time that this project has been in place, over 2,000 students were provided access to a school nurse when they otherwise would not have had access. This program is invaluable in the care we provide to ...
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Molly Satter RN, MSN | Health Services Supervisor
School nurses play an integral role in ensuring that students are healthy and ready to learn. After identifying a need for better access to our nursing services across our large school district, Avel eCare worked with us hand in hand to develop a custom solution and pilot the eCare School Nurse project, which dramatically increased our students’ access to a school nurse. In the short time that this project has been in place, over 2,000 students were provided access to a school nurse when they otherwise would not have had access. This program is invaluable in the care we provide to students. Avel eCare has been a great partner and we’re now working on plans for further expansion.
Molly Satter RN, MSN | Health Services Supervisor
This program has allowed our school district to have the best student attendance rate in the past twelve years. The program identifies basic illnesses and helps our teachers work with parents to provide treatment options for students. In severe situations the program helps our school district principals to ensure that proper medical steps are being taken for serious medical conditions. The diabetic moniotring done by the program has been life changing for one of our students.
Justin Fryer, Previous Superintendent
This program has allowed our school district to have the best student attendance rate in the past twelve years. The program identifies basic illnesses and helps our teachers work with parents to provide treatment options for students. In severe situations the program helps our school district principals to ensure that proper medical steps are being taken for serious medical conditions. The diabetic moniotring done by the program has been life changing for one of our students.
Justin Fryer, Previous Superintendent
They are a leader in innovative medical care and are incredibly interested in authentic partnership!
Lyndsi Engstrom, Director of Research, Design and Value
They are a leader in innovative medical care and are incredibly interested in authentic partnership!
Lyndsi Engstrom, Director of Research, Design and Value
Avel eCare has taken the burden off of our office staff playing "doctor" to assess and determine a student's injuries or illness. It has also been effective with students who are frequently sick. They don't like having to see the nurse, so they are more likely to stay in school!
Anonymous Survey
Avel eCare has taken the burden off of our office staff playing "doctor" to assess and determine a student's injuries or illness. It has also been effective with students who are frequently sick. They don't like having to see the nurse, so they are more likely to stay in school!
Anonymous Survey
Avel eCare school health gives me piece of mind that my son gets the care that he requires for his diabetes at school. They help him calculate carbs for his meals and are excellent at communicating with me about how much insulin he will be needing. Since my son is not on a pump yet sometimes dosing is a little tricky. They give my son good care and they try to make it easier for him to be at school and care for his diabetes.
Parent of Student - Anonymous
Avel eCare school health gives me piece of mind that my son gets the care that he requires for his diabetes at school. They help him calculate carbs for his meals and are excellent at communicating with me about how much insulin he will be needing. Since my son is not on a pump yet sometimes dosing is a little tricky. They give my son good care and they try to make it easier for him to be at school and care for his diabetes.
Parent of Student - Anonymous
Avel is a savior for us to make the right decisions regarding type 1 diabetes. We have never questioned their decisions and have always validated our decisions with their experts. We are very appreciative of their partnership.
Anonymous Survey
Avel is a savior for us to make the right decisions regarding type 1 diabetes. We have never questioned their decisions and have always validated our decisions with their experts. We are very appreciative of their partnership.
Anonymous Survey
Sisseton School District has nearly 1,000 enrolled students spread across three buildings. We have had a school nurse since I started working in the district, but what we found is that as our nursing services increased, we needed somebody that could provide additional support when our nurse was in a different building. Avel stepped in to provide this support and help our nurse who was spread thin.
We were seeing an increase in our number of students who needed some diabetic care plan maintenance. Our nurse just physically couldn't do that care for students anymore, so Avel eCare helped fill this ...
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Tammy Meyer, Ed. D., Superintendent
Sisseton School District has nearly 1,000 enrolled students spread across three buildings. We have had a school nurse since I started working in the district, but what we found is that as our nursing services increased, we needed somebody that could provide additional support when our nurse was in a different building. Avel stepped in to provide this support and help our nurse who was spread thin.
We were seeing an increase in our number of students who needed some diabetic care plan maintenance. Our nurse just physically couldn't do that care for students anymore, so Avel eCare helped fill this gap. One of the first interactions we had was Sheila came up to teach all of our diabetic care aids how to administer and provide services to diabetic students. She came onsite, she provided that training, she offered support through that entire process, and it was a great way to formalize our unlicensed diabetic care management plan.
One of the things that surprised us was how easy it was to use the service. Our current school nurse and I joke that we should make t-shirts that say 'just push the button' because that is literally all it takes to get high-quality support. Our students and our families have been very appreciative - especially when we were going through COVID - that there was always somebody else they could speak to if our nurse wasn't onsite or in another building, we always had access to a medial professional.
Sheila and her team have been a great resource. As we are looking for additional support for our nurse - it is a one-person position on campus. Very few school districts around us have a school nurse, so it was a way for us to have some brainstorming time with another school nurse team.
Tammy Meyer, Ed. D., Superintendent
It was really great to know that we had a nurse on-call for us and it alleviated some of the pressure on the staff because we had direct access to a nurse to help us. Avel's program is very user friendly, and it has been a lifesaver for us here at South Heart. A top benefit has been able to have access to a medical expert. For example, if you have a student with a rash, you can bring them on camera and the Avel nurse can evaluate the student and then contact the parents to give them the appropriate ...
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Jessica Geis, Elementary Principal
It was really great to know that we had a nurse on-call for us and it alleviated some of the pressure on the staff because we had direct access to a nurse to help us. Avel's program is very user friendly, and it has been a lifesaver for us here at South Heart. A top benefit has been able to have access to a medical expert. For example, if you have a student with a rash, you can bring them on camera and the Avel nurse can evaluate the student and then contact the parents to give them the appropriate advice. This is great for us because we aren't nurses, we're educators and it helps our peace of mind knowing an expert is meeting these health needs.
Jessica Geis, Elementary Principal
Avel eCare School Health:
Partners in Care
Avel eCare School Health Awards
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- 2023 Hero Award (American School Health Association)
- 2021 Community Star Award (National Organization of State Offices of Rural Health)
- 2020 Outstanding Rural Health Program for North Dakota
In the News
- Telehealth Programs are Helping to Put School Health on the Curriculum | Healthleaders | 02/08/2023
- Virtual School Nurses Can Play a Pivotal Role in Schools | eSchool News | 01/05/2023
- Avera Studies Impact of Virtual Health Care in Schools Without Nurses | Dakota News Now | 05/26/2022
- Maine Prepares to Bring Remote Nursing to Public Schools | Daily Nurse | 04/07/22
- Virtual Nurses Now Keep Maine School Students Safe and Healthy | HealthTech Insider | 04/04/22
- eCare Program Expands how Kids Access Healthcare While in School | Sheila Freed | 11/29/21
How To Get More Information
For more information on School Health Services, please contact us.
