By GREGORY ZELLER //
A team of tough-minded architects is challenging school nurses to take it outside.
No, it’s not a scientific rumble – it’s an innovation of coronaviral proportions, designed to protect students and staff from COVID-19 by placing nurses’ offices in separate structures outside the main school building.
That creates a safe, hygienic space to isolate students with COVID symptoms, though of course not just any trailer in a parking lot will do. Enter NursePod, a specially designed, multi-compartment modular structure combining the latest antiviral technologies with everything found in the traditional school nurse’s office.
The inventive “remote school nurse facility solution,” by Hicksville-based startup NursePod Inc., debuted Wednesday with a ribbon-cutting ceremony outside Glen Cove’s Landing Elementary School. It was conceived by architect Michael Mark, developer Michael Scott and interior designer Irene Yim and fleshed out based on guidance from various health and government agencies, as well as the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers.
“We were concerned that school nurse’s offices simply were not designed for this new world in which we find ourselves,” Mark said Wednesday. “We are incredibly excited to see the NursePod go from a concept to a real-life structure.
“Our goal is to ease the concerns that school administrators, nurses, teachers, staff and parents have in the ‘what-if’ scenario where a child might display symptoms during a school day.”
Remote control: Designer Michael Scott (right) joins Yim and Mark outside the physically detached NursePod.
Each unit contains two isolation rooms coated with microbicidal paint – lethal to germs – and outfitted with negative air pressure exhaust systems, which vent potentially infected air directly out of the NursePod.
The units also include a unisex bathroom and a main reception room with a desk for the nurse, as well as ceiling-mounted U-VC light-emitting diodes that constantly sweep the multi-room space with germicidal ultraviolet beams.
The modular structures were built with contributions from “local fabricators and manufacturers,” according to the 2020 startup, and actually provide a multitude of benefits for schools: not only the social distancing of potentially COVID-positive students, but the avoidance of costly construction issues and the freeing up of interior spaces for instructional purposes.
They even help students avoid potential “COVID stigma,” according to NursePod, which is in the process of installing multiple Glen Cove units and already spreading the word to other regional school districts.
“We also care about a child’s emotional wellbeing,” Mark said. “In the event where they might display symptoms, we must care for them in a safe and compassionate way while maintaining that child’s confidentiality to prevent any stigma and bullying.”
NursePod
What’s It? Modular school-nurse offices designed to keep COVID-positive students outside school buildings
Brought To You By: Innovators Michael Mark, Michael Scott and Irene Yim, who saw a need and started designing
Status: In attendance in Glen Cove, applying to other schools
