We are trying to choose between 3 schools. One thing I noticed was that the first 2 have health centers that are open 24 hrs/7 days a week, while the 3rd school’s health center is closed on Fri night and on Sat and Sun. Do any parents have boarders at schools with limited hours of health centers? Has it been a problem? My daughter needs medication twice a day and it is not the kind you can keep in your room, so at the schools with the 24/7 health centers she would go there to take it (seems like a pain but those are the rules) but I am not sure what they would do at the 3rd school.
We will look into this at revisit days, but wanted to get some general feedback here if possible.
Also, if anyone has specific feedback on health centers and counseling services at Governor’s, Brooks, or Lawrence please let me know by PM.
Our health center is open 24/7, which I think is critical for living with a large population of teenagers. They have a nurse’s station in the dining hall during breakfast hours 7 days a week to dispense medication to those students who take it daily (increases compliance because students don’t have to hike to the HC). One recent Saturday, I was up visiting DS and walked over to the health center to drop off a refill of his med, and the waiting room was full of kids - on a Saturday - with colds, some with bumped heads and elbows (it had just snowed 20 inches), and others. I was both surprised at the # of kids there on a Saturday, and also pleased that the place was open to treat them at any time of the day or night… Injuries can occur at any time. What in the world does the school with the HC that’s closed on weekends do for injuries occurring during weekend sports injuries? Or for the kid who comes down with stomach flu or mono on a Saturday night?
I have never heard of a school with a HC that is closed on the weekends! Weekends are when a lot of things happen. Some schools do allow dorm parents to hold/dispense certain medications if the HC is not open at bedtime or before breakfast.
It worries me. That school seemed like the most supportive in terms of advising and super friendly, and she seemed very comfortable there. Now it is dropping lower because of the health center issue.
I have a lot of experience with the Brooks health center, to the point where the head nurse and I immediately recognized each other’s voices on a phone call. I found them to be excellent and responsive. Boarders leaving or returning on the weekends check out and in with the health center so they also get to know the kids and their patterns.
I’m not sure why LA’s health center is not open on weekends, as it seems like a time you’d want students to have access to health care. My daughter’s been to the trainer on weekends but she’s not a boarder so I’m not sure how they handle a kid who gets sick on a Friday night.
If I were you I would definitely want to ask about LA’s health center. I love the school and its leadership but as a mom I’d be concerned about my child’s access to medical care. I’d imagine the school can get around the medication issue, for instance by having the student keep meds in a mini-fridge in the dorm parent’s apartment. I also expect this is the far from the first time this has come up. Many kids need weekend meds. So the bottom line would be to ask, either now by email or on the revisit day.
I can see why the schools might choose to close down on the weekends. Its more expensive to run a 24/7 facility - esp for nurses and physician overtime.
Most of the events can be handled easily in the on campus health clinic. For any urgent issues I’m sure there is a nearby emergency room that can handle just about anything else.
What type of medication does your child need that can only be stored at a health center? Some schools allow students with specific medical needs to have their own refrigerator. Is it a controlled substance?
@sgopal2 I know there are issues with adderall being shared with other students at boarding school because of the large amount of work and the high standard being set.
I don’t want to say which medicine, but thank you for the feedback. There is an on-call number for the weekend, and a nearby ER. So it is not a huge problem for most students. I was just wondering how common this type of arrangement is.
We do not have experience with those schools. But after having spent the last 6 years as the parent of boarders, I can tell you not having a 24/7 health center would be a deal breaker for me. Numerous times my kids have ended up visiting/ spending the night in the health center on weekends. This seems to be when they finally have time to visit the doctor. One of our children deals with a chronic health issue- so maybe I am just more concerned than most.
If there’s no 24/7 health center then what do they do with kids who have contagious illnesses like the flu. My son has had the flu each year at BS. They have kids stay in the health center for a full five days and a course of Tamiflu.
I’m a long-time mostly lurker, but will come out long enough to sing the praises of the Health Center and counselor at Governor’s Academy. Unless, you have a VERY healthy and independent kid, 24/7 coverage is essential. Even kids who are physically healthy may just need a little TLC once in a while, and can get it from a friendly nurse at the health center. DD had no chronic physical problems, but could be needy and Govs nurses and counselor were wonderfully supportive to her. She has now graduated, but visits all of them when she goes back to school. Also, I can’t conceive of how a BS deals with the myriad issues that carry over into weekends–flu, broken bones needing a little rest from dorm life, etc.
I I was the OP, I’d ask a lot of these questions to Lawrence Academy before ruling it out. Perhaps they have some procedure in the dorms for dealing with the isolation and care of a sick child and for doling out medication during the weekend hours.
Most colleges do not have 24/7 health centers so our children will be in that environment eventually but I do think that the age of 14-15 is a little earlier than most of us would wish for.
@mass2020mom I have some experience with this, as I have two kids at boarding school who need to take medication 2x a day from the health center. I think it should definitely be a make/break issue for kids in this position as as access to needed medication can vary widely between schools. How? At school A (none that you have mentioned), the kids have only a short window to receive their morning medication. The health center is more than 3/4 mile off campus (!), so they set up a nurse’s station in a random academic building that is only open 1/2 hour in the morning. In the evenings, they run a shuttle bus at a specific hour for the kids to get the medication, a real problem if your child plays sports or has meetings with teachers/club. On top of that, the health center is only open two hours each morning on the weekends (9-11), which is the exact time of brunch, and it is not open at all for medication before Sunday evening study hall. It has been a serious problem for our son. Our second son ended up at a different boarding school, and during our revisits we visited each health center and asked what their medication protocols are (you can also call, they are happy to help you and won’t even ask your name). School B has a health center is in the center of campus and is open from 7:30 - 6:30pm during the week, and 5:30 - 7:30pm on Sunday night before study hall. Kids with ADHD meds are not treated like potential criminals. Schools are soon different on this topic. Hope you find this helpful.
Thanks so much @lizzie123. School A sounds like a nightmare for meds. I am sorry to hear about your kid’s difficult experience. We picked one of the schools with the 24/7 health centers (Governor’s Academy), but that was not the only factor–after revisit day my daughter loved the school so much that she didn’t even want to go to the other 2 revisits. We felt like it had the whole package–good academic options, sports, arts, dorm atmosphere, community service, warmth and community feeling, advising/counseling and the health center. It was good getting everyone’s feedback here! Definitely made me more comfortable skipping the revisit to the school I really liked but didn’t have the 24/7 health center, but I would have asked more about their logistics if we had gone there.