Essay Example on School Health: The Essential Link Between Learning and Wellbeing

Introduction

Schools make the most influential environment for children after their homes as they spend most of their time there rather than at home. Students must be healthy so that they can experience good grades and improved understanding capabilities in class. This creates an existing relationship between learning and health, making it impossible for a school to run without competent health practitioners. The most vulnerable population in schools in this perspective is the young students which makes it necessary for any school setting to have a nurse. Nurses have different roles in the school, and without one to offer health services to the students, the academic prosperity targeted by both students and teachers cannot be achieved.

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Community Setting

Students, both young and old, spend most of their time in school, making it the most influential environment away from home. There have been increased cases of students going to school, either with health issues or mental problems. This makes it harder for their pediatricians to manage them when they are in school (Kruger et al. ,2009). This is where the school nurses come in as they take the responsibilities of representatives of healthcare and offer the services that the medical pediatricians would have provided in their respective healthcare settings. Another group of people that are vulnerable in schools are the teachers who like the students might get health issues in their line of duty and seek the services of the school nurses.

Roles of School Nurses

Students in the current world are vulnerable to facing cases of homelessness, poverty, violence, and crises in their families which affects their health need both mentally and physically. Nurses in schools play a significant role in the provision of services to both students and teachers (Kruger, Radjenovic, Toker & Comeaux, 2009). The services offered include preventive and screening activities, immunization against certain preventable diseases, educating the students about health issues, and assisting them in making decisions concerning health issues. The school nurses have to be present in the school always to handle the responsibilities and emergencies whenever they arise. Improved outcomes of students, as well as better performance, is realized in situations where a school has a nurse that is available on a full-time basis.

The roles that school nurses have in the educational and health success of students are different depending on the school setting they are placed. They provide care to students on cases of acute illness and injuries and other special needs of health care (Kruger et al. ,2009). The nurses assess and treat the students with referrals to other medical physicians, and provision of prescribed care in nursing. They also provide health services for special needs students, such as disabilities and other chronic illnesses. The nurses of schools provide leadership for health service provision by making an assessment of care systems and developing different plans to ensure that the health needs of the school are met. The screening services performed by the nurses include hearing, vision, and BMI assessments where, after the conclusion of the test, the students are referred to medical homes.

The nurses also provide emotional and physical safety through monitoring of immunizations, appropriately excluding infectious illnesses and other communicable diseases. They also monitor the protection of the school environment where they implement plans to prevent and manage bullying, disasters, and violence (Kruger, Radjenovic, Toker & Comeaux, 2009). The nurses prepare most suicide prevention plans with coordination with the counselors in the school, and they also act as a link between the professionals of health care, family, and the community. They ensure that there is enough communication between families of the students, community resource providers, and physicians. School nurses can also work to create a conducive environment for children and families in the community.

Health Promotion Nursing Intervention

School nurses partner with school physicians, community organizations, as well as physicians in the community to lead school systems. Nurses have knowledge that prepares them to take leadership roles that help them access assets and community needs that aid to propose partnership solutions (Kruger et al. ,2009). Community participation in the school and the ethnographic models build assumptions that play a significant role in participatory research of the community. The nurses collaborate with drug associations to deal with the concerns of substance abuse, pregnancy of teens, and AIDS. The nurses conduct education programs concerning nutrition, mental health, physical fitness in collaboration with counselors both in school and in the community. These programs deal with food, stress management, and health-related issues such as stopping smoking by students to prevent chronic diseases.

Participation of the parents is another association that is crucial in the nurse setting in schools. Nurses learn from parents of the students concerning an individual's life story, behaviors, and preferences of caregiving on the administration of care and health services (Kruger, Radjenovic, Toker & Comeaux, 2009). They also collaborate with individual education teachers for situations where the nurse deals with special needs students. The nurses require a lot of information from the individual education teachers regarding the students living with special needs to screen their health situations while administering treatment. The nurses and the teachers working together helps the nurses to come up with an intervention plan. This helps deal with such students and ensure that their individual needs do not become a hindrance to their performance and success.

Professional Nursing Organization

American Nurses Association is a health organization which states that nurses are bound by similar nurse practice acts like those in other settings of healthcare. This organization says a section in their education that brings out requirements for school health regarding screening, care of students, and medical delegation (ANA, 2019). It is the responsibility of all school nurses that every child in the school gets access to quality health practices offered by a professional school nurse that is registered. Increased knowledge on the health of children leads to improved screening, chronic condition management, and preventive care. Children that are disabled require support in school so they can be successful with different laws being established to protect the rights of such people. This organization brings out the responsibility of nurses to develop Individualized Education Plans, Emergency Care Plans, and health portions of IEPs which are necessary for special education. School nurses are positioned in such a way that students are accommodated appropriately, and improvement to education access is realized.

Conclusion

Nurses have different roles in the school, and without one to offer health services to the students, the academic prosperity targeted by both students and teachers cannot be achieved. The nurses collaborate with parents and the community to ensure that the services offered to students are of high quality, and they meet the necessary standards. American Nurses Association is a health organization which states that school nurses are bound by similar nurse practice acts like those in other settings of healthcare. Schools must have a nurse who checks on the well being of the students and refer them to the necessary medical practitioners where special care is needed.

References

ANA. (2019). Healthy and Ready to Learn: School Nurses Improve Equity and Access. Retrieved 25 September 2019, from http://ojin.nursingworld.org/MainMenuCategories/ANAMarketplace/ANAPeriodicals/OJIN/TableofContents/Vol-22-2017/No3-Sep-2017/Healthy-and-Ready-to-Learn.html

Kruger, B. J., Radjenovic, D., Toker, K. H., & Comeaux, J. M. (2009). School nurses who only care for children with special needs: Working in a teacher's world. The journal of school nursing, 25(6), 436-444.