Charmaine Branchaud sees the stories of Red Lake Nation students in the data.
Branchaud has been an RN for four and a half decades and began overseeing school clinics across all Red Lake Nation schools in Minnesota in 2021. Her work improving Red Lake School District’s immunization rates began as she sifted through paper records and data, which allowed her to understand student health needs.
“I wanted to see if we had any frequent fliers,” she says, referring to children who often require health care. “It could be a red flag for something else going on in a student’s life.”
Branchaud has been named this year’s Immunization Champion by the Association of Immunization Managers and the Minnesota Department of Health for her work organizing immunization clinics at all Red Lake schools.
Daily Nurse honors Charmaine Branchaud as the Nurse of the Week for her work helping to make a difference in the community’s health and making it convenient for parents to get their kids immunized at school.
The school district had software for tracking immunization records. Still, Branchaud recognized it was underutilized, so with help from the school administrative staff, she started by entering paper records into the school’s electronic database.
Once student health records were fully digitized, Branchaud ensured the school’s database interfaced with the system used by the state for tracking immunizations.
With the pandemic near its height, Branchaud says she turned to raising the district’s immunization rates.
She brainstormed with Red Lake Schools’ superintendent, principals, administrative staff, health technicians, the Red Lake Indian Health Service pediatrics unit, and Red Lake IHS, and together, they worked to organize school-based immunization clinics. An April clinic held at the Red Lake Elementary Complex immunized 38 elementary students, raising the district’s overall rates for kindergartners, first and second grades from 84 percent to 94 percent.
A public health nurse, Hannah Tolman, says the clinics greatly impacted community health. “Making it convenient for parents to get their kids immunized at school … is huge.”
Her work with Red Lake School District is just one of several roles in which she’s worked to improve public health in her community. From Sept. 2022 to June, Branchaud was a member of the Minnesota Department of Health’s Childhood Immunization Workgroup.
Branchaud says that once parents have accurate information, it’s up to them to make an informed decision. “It’s our duty to educate them.”
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