CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Cynthia Wiley, better known as "Nurse Wiley" in the halls of Martin Luther King, Jr. Middle School in Charlotte, loves her job.
Deeper than that, she loves her school community.
“I love my kids," Wiley told WCNC Charlotte. "I love my students. I love my staff that I work with and support. This job I do every day definitely fills my cup.”
It’s support and love that drives Wiley to help lift the burden that families face.
“We see a concern. We see a need. How is it that I can help you as a public health nurse,” Wiley said.
In 2021, Wiley helped pilot the Meaningful Medicine program at MLK Middle.
“Prior to it being located in the school, I would have to try and get on that phone and find a provider that was willing to see our students and send the parents out. So, that means more time off work [and] more time out of school,” she explained.
For the program, Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools partnered with Atrium Health and Bank of America to help kids at Title I schools.
One of the kids getting help thanks to the program is 7th grader Dalton Fuller.
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“It’s just where you see a doctor online," Fuller said. "She tells us if you need medicine or not."
The program provides school-based virtual health care and is intended to help Charlotte’s most vulnerable communities, along with tackling equity concerns.
“At least I’m not going to be sick all the time. Even if I am, Mrs. Wiley can help me and make me feel better,” Fuller said.
For Wiley, trust is at the foundation of making this program work.
“From what I witnessed, when parents experience this for the first time when they trust you that first time and you do what you say you’re going to do, they are more willing to accept that help in the future and that develops that trust,” she explained.
Since fully launching in 2022, Meaningful Medicine has had more than 3,200 visits to the virtual portal.
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The program also helps CMS students and graduates attain health care careers and provides accessible, community-based virtual care sites at Central Piedmont Community College and YMCA locations.
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