Community Awareness and Utilization of School Based Health Centers in Burlington, Vermont

Most K-12 students will miss at least one day of school each year due to illness or injury; in 2010, six percent missed 11 days or more. School Based Health Clinics, SBHC, are provider-based health clinics located in schools, supplementing routine nursing care and complementing the role of a pediatrician while the child is in school. SBHCs aim to: • Reduce the amount of school that students miss • Provide quick and convenient care for a variety of routine and acute medical concerns Our objective was to: • Investigate community awareness and utilization of the SBHCs in the Burlington School District • Providing insight regarding how to increase engagement of students and parents with the SBHC’s and thereby reduce avoidable class absenteeism.https://scholarworks.uvm.edu/comphp_gallery/1274/thumbnail.jp

Destigmatizing Experiences of Combat Veterans Engaged in Civilian Disaster Relief: Implications for Community Transition

Combat veterans possess some attributes of differentness that may cause others in society to create stigmatized perceptions of them and devalue their skills. Direct interaction/contact allows targeted individuals—in this case, combat veterans—to demonstrate their value by dispelling negative attitudes or beliefs others may have of them. A previous study reported that the disaster relief setting facilitates contact among combat veterans and non-military civilians. This study applied Modified Labeling Theory (MLT) to assess if the stigma and labeling experience among combat veterans volunteering in disaster settings provides a nuanced understanding. Semi-structured interviews were used to assess perceptions of male Team Rubicon (TR) members (n=9) who provide disaster relief in civilian settings. All participants served in combat. Data were thematically analyzed. Findings suggest 1) combat veterans were not stigmatized by their label; and 2) personal contact with civilians impacted by disaster helped TR members a) to demonstrate their value, and b) feel more optimistic about connecting with civilians in other contexts. Our findings suggest that veterans working with peer combat veterans and civilians in disaster settings provided a destigmatizing condition whereby combat veterans felt less stigmatized by others and more interpersonally connected with civilians. It is recommended that since the majority of services for veterans come from civilian community providers, it is imperative that providers be sensitive to military culture and experiences of those serving in combat to avoid further stigmatization of veterans

General Anesthesia Versus Conscious Sedation and Local Anesthesia During Thrombectomy for Acute Ischemic Stroke

As numerous questions remain about the best anesthetic strategy during thrombectomy, we assessed functional and radiological outcomes in stroke patients treated with thrombectomy in presence of general anesthesia (GA) versus conscious sedation (CS) and local anesthesia (LA)