Alumni Spotlight
Stephanie Knutson
When Stephanie Knutson, MSN RN, arrives in her office before 7a.m. at the Board of Education 960 Main Street, Hartford, her first task is to make certain all 60 of the other Hartford school nurses will be in place that day. If not, she will call in substitutes or alter a nurse's schedule to cover one or more locations. That alone seems a daunting task. For Stephanie, however, it is routine and only one of many responsibilities she carries out as the Coordinator of Health Services for Hartford Public School system.
On any given day, Stephanie will be involved in the implementation of mandatory health screenings and immunizations for Hartford's children. She may join other educators in a ppt planning session for a very medically fragile child. In fact, she has developed standardized nursing care plans for the school district for autistic children, children with congenital heart disease, mobility-impaired children, and others as the basis for more individualized attention to their health needs.
She may meet with a vendor from the pharmaceutical company such as AstraZeneca about supporting the asthma programs. She is particularly proud of the teen asthma program which was designed to take place during school lunch periods so as not to utilize academic class time. Asthma is one of the leading causes of student absence from the Hartford schools. Helping children learn how to manage their asthma symptoms means fewer absences and more time in the classroom and more opportunities to learn. Stephanie believes that promoting health literacy whether it is with an individual child and her family, through a special initiative such as the teen asthma program, or collaborating with the Department of Public Health to sponsor a World Asthma Day at St. Francis Hospital will result in more children learning.
Stephanie uses the term transforming when she speaks of her MSN program at the University of Hartford. One course in particular, Feminist Perspectives on the Caring Professions, helped her to become confidant in her professional role and purposeful in her daily work. She is an advocate for all school-aged children especially those whose health may be compromised. She teaches them how to manage their own health so as to take full advantage of their educational opportunities.
