Operationalizing the Bridge Care Model-Advocating for At-Risk Students

The inability to meet local, state, and federal health requirements for school entry can delay enrollment for uninsured, registering students. For at-risk, vulnerable students and families, limited access to health care providers, funding, and transportation, as well as inflexible work schedules, can create barriers to their ability to access required health services in a timely manner, thus delaying immediate student enrollment. This article focuses on the implementation of the Bridge Care Model through an innovative and unique partnership between an academic nurse-mananaged clinic network and a local school system. Through collaboration, data analysis, and process planning, these partners established a Memorandum of Agreement allowing each to address their programmatic missions, visions, and goals to meet the needs of at-risk, uninsured, vulnerable students and to remove barriers to school entry. Through this mutually beneficial approach, direct health services were provided at an on-site, central student registration location through a cost-effective, sustainable partnership. This article highlights how implementation of the Bridge Care model at a central student registration site allowed a local school system to reduce barriers to school entry for vulnerable at-risk students; provide access to medical navigation support for uninsured families; and create a streamlined communication system to allow school-based staff to support students with significant physical and behavioral health needs following enrollment.