New nurse's familiarity with city a plus.

Byline: Paula J. Owen

FITHCBURG - If there is a major outbreak of a communicable disease, new Board of Health nurse Dorothy "Dotty" H. McNamara will have one of the most important jobs in the city.

Mrs. McNamara, 49, has lived in Fitchburg all of her life and said she took the position to give back to the community.

Her former positions as a registered nurse with several area agencies, including Montachusett Home Care, HealthAlliance hospital and Heywood Hospital, are what got her the job, said Board of Health Director Stephen D. Curry.

"She had a good background in doing home visits with people from her previous positions," Mr. Curry said. "She will be doing a lot of that and I liked that she is comfortable with going to people's homes. With this job, you need to be able to do that."

He said Mrs. McNamara is not hesitant to enforce public health codes in a home situation and difficult setting.

She also knows the city, he said.

"It could be really important that she knows where to go with tying scenarios together if need be," he explained. "With communicable diseases, it's like a big jigsaw puzzle sometimes in determining where a disease derived from, and being familiar with the city will help piece that puzzle together."

The Board of Health nurse's job description includes investigating, reporting and controlling the spread of communicable diseases; working with schools, hospitals, jails and other public institutions in receiving and processing reports of diseases dangerous to the public health; enforcing isolation and quarantine requirements of diseases declared to be dangerous to the public health; helping plan and evaluate public health programs; administering immunizations as needed; investigating and controlling the spread of vaccine-preventable communicable diseases; carrying out the West Nile Virus bird testing program; and maintaining a mortality and morbidity database.

Mrs. McNamara is also responsible for aiding in the control of an outbreak of tuberculosis, enforcing health requirements at tattoo and body piercing shops, and for emergency preparedness planning for the city.

Despite the tall order Mrs. McNamara has to fill, at the end of her third week in the job, she said she feels ready.

"I have lived in Fitchburg all my life and have been interested in public health for some time, so when this position became vacant, I decided to explore the opportunities and experiences it had to offer," she said. "I definitely feel ready to take on the responsibilities of the position and I'm looking forward to the challenges ahead."

She said she hopes there will not be any kind of disease outbreak in the city where quarantines would be necessary, but if there is, such as a pandemic flu, systems and plans are in place.

"These plans are continuously updated," she explained. "There are regional committees that meet during the year for planning, and local boards of health are on that committee."

Mr. Curry said he thinks he and Mrs. McNamara can grow together in their respective jobs. He has worked as an inspector in the Health Department for the city for 15 years, but just became director nine months ago.

"We're going to grow together," he said. "I had a shot at more experienced people, but I thought it would be an advantage to mold someone I was interested in, so we can learn it together from our own experiences from different ends."

He said that so far, Mrs. McNamara is "handling it well."

NAME: FITCHBURG BOARD OF HEALTH