GREENFIELD — The city has a new public health nurse in Megan Tudryn, who officially begins around Jan. 21.
Cheryl Volpe, Tudryn’s predecessor, went on paid administrative leave in the spring and left Greenfield’s employment in the late summer or early fall, according to Danielle Letourneau, chief of staff to Mayor Roxann Wedegartner. Letourneau said she is not allowed to explain the reasoning behind the administrative leave because it is a personnel matter.
Letourneau said Tudryn will be slated for 20-hour workweeks, though she will work more due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Tudryn will earn the same pay as Volpe — $40 an hour, for $800 per 20-hour week. Volpe is still listed as a town nurse for Montague.
Tudryn, a registered nurse, was hired in the spring or summer for COVID-19 contact tracing, the process of identifying people who may have come into contact with an infected person.
“For all intents and purposes, she has been the public health nurse since the summer,” Letourneau said, adding that hiring anyone in the public sector is “not as easy as snapping your fingers” like it can be in the private sector, especially during a pandemic.
Greenfield’s Interim Health Director Jennifer Hoffman, who had previously been the health care liaison to the mayor and assumed this new post in early November following the retirement of Valerie Bird, explained a public health nurse essentially serves as a health educator to youth and the elderly. The nurse also focuses on disease prevention.
Hoffman said the city’s Health Department will be tasked with administering COVID-19 vaccines once they are made available. She said the department will collaborate with the Franklin Regional Council of Governments (FRCOG), perhaps in March or April.
Reach Domenic Poli at: dpoli@recorder.com or 413-772-0261, ext. 262.