The University of Vermont Medical Center HealthSource blog is your leading source for community health news and articles from industry experts. Read through a collection of community health news and articles on a variety of topics such as addiction, substance abuse, sexual assault, mental health and more. The HealthSource community health blog features an array of regular authors and contributors from the medical world including doctors, nutritionists, nurse practitioners, healthcare executives and community partners.
Think about all the questions you’ve had about the COVID-19 vaccine since it first became available. Now, picture what it would be like if you were the one who had to find the answers. Enter Merideth Plumpton, RN, nurse program coordinator for the State of Vermont’s immunization program. During the height of the pandemic, Plumpton […]
One day in late April, Howard Schapiro, MD, gathered with a group of about 50 nurses, vaccinators, pharmacists and support staff to pose for a group photo. He stood toward the back, cracking a wide smile behind his mask. The photo was a tribute to the people who had worked to set up the COVID-19 […]
It was an unexpected convergence of events on a Friday afternoon in February. The usual organized flow of patients through the COVID vaccination clinic at the Champlain Valley Expo was disrupted due to another event at the sprawling 26,000-square-foot building. Traffic was tied up outside, causing many people to arrive late and flustered for their […]
Celsius and Fahrenheit are Kevin Smith’s steadfast companions when ushering the COVID-19 vaccines from the University of Vermont Medical Center’s loading docks to the COVID-19 vaccine clinic at the Champlain Valley Expo in Essex. The process begins on Thursday evenings, when Smith receives an email from the Vermont Department of Health detailing how many doses […]
It was late in the afternoon when Lisa LaBerge and Mark Roberts rushed through the doors of the Champlain Valley Expo, nervous that they had missed their COVID-19 vaccine appointments. LaBerge had been held up at work, and after months of anticipation, had somehow found herself running late, growing so agitated on the drive that […]
Early on in the pandemic, when there was no end in sight, the couriers at Green Mountain Messenger made sure ventilators got to desperately ill patients at University of Vermont Medical Center. Less than a year later, they began transporting the most hopeful cargo of all — vaccines — to the state’s largest vaccination clinic […]
It might seem like a big leap from milking cows to leading the University of Vermont Health Network’s Telehealth Services, but Todd Young says working on his grandfather’s farm taught him one important lesson: how to work hard. Over the past year, he’s brought his work ethic to an unprecedented array of challenges: A pandemic, […]
Decades before David Weiss, RN, began administering vaccines, he was a 10-year-old boy with a mysterious autoimmune disorder, requesting permission to start his own IV. From a childhood crowded by a parade of health care professionals, Weiss evolved into a college student who couldn’t wait to work in health care. As an EMT while at […]
“Hanging onto the wings of a plane as it flies.” That’s how Nicole Courtois, RN, a nurse at University of Vermont Medical Center, describes the early days setting up the vaccination clinic at the Champlain Valley Expo in Essex. In the first month, the group assigned to setting up the clinic, had to quickly develop […]
Many parents are looking for ways to teach their children the importance of seeking out diverse people, ideas, and experiences while learning, themselves, that the goal is equitable treatment for our Black, indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) communities. Here is advice from one of our pediatric child psychologists.
