Roles of the School Nurse - Essay Example

Roles of the school nurse College The significance of school nurses cannot be aggrandized. School nurses play an important and accomplished role in school settings. In schools that children from low-income families attend for example, school nurses are the initial health care personnel with whom students from such less privileged families of whom majority lack health insurance and yet are in need of medical attention come into contact. The school nurses role has diversified greatly over time since its introduction over a hundred years ago. It was introduced by Lillian Wald, a social reformer turn a public health nurse. At first, the role of the school nurses was to prevent he spread of communicable diseases and treating of health conditions emanating from school life (National Association of School Nurses, 1990). Since its inception, it has expanded its activities to include advocacy, health promotion, initiating emergency, providing health education, case management, medication administration and tracking immunization (National Association of School Nurses, 1990). School nursing has since evolved over time to include such services as initiating individualized health plans and first aid and emergency services for students with serious medical conditions. Other areas that they focus on include reporting cases of child abuse, conducting and supervising state mandated screenings, providing assessment for and attending Individualized Education Plan (IEP) meetings for students with special educational needs such as, hearing and vision, providing families with information on available resources for procuring free or low-cost services and referring students to appropriate agencies after screening (National Association of School Nurses, 1990). School nurses save lives, increase student attendance and decrease early dismissals. They are the first respondents to disease outbreaks and epidemics and they monitor the general population’s health as well as liaising with public health officials. Their services are directed to students and in cases of crucial occurrence within the school e.g. dangerous incidents involving school properties they are the first ones to respond (Schwab & Gelfman, 2005). In case of fire outbreaks in the school compounds thousands of endangered lives are left at the mercies of school nurses who give it all to save these lives. School nurses ensure that everything that pose threat to health within the school community are identified and eliminated to ensure that good health prevails. To ensure this is attained they make sure that such threats to health like dogs, broken equipments, lack of clean water and hand soap are looked into and sorted out (Schwab & Gelfman, 2005). They take the leading role to ensure that health services are adequately provided within the school community and that good policies and programs are implemented to the latter. Fragile students within the schools are ensured of safety due to the presence of the nurses and these have helped them build confidence due to overwhelming support and counseling provided by the nurse (Schwab & Gelfman, 2005). School nurses also screen students for hearing and visual conditions and also provide referral services on such conditions. School nurses also are very important because they are the ones who ensure that the school compounds are very clean and conducive and if not they take a step further to ensure that sanity is achieved within the school environments (Heath, 1975). Children with chronic conditions could not have been possible for them to attend school if it were not for the nurses who attend to them to provide health support, moral support through counseling and always there for them. When these children with chronic conditions are in the school, they feel at home due to warm support of the nurses. They also boost students learning and health and work. School nurses work together with families of the patients, the community and school personal to ensure that health prevails (Heath, 1975). As a school nurse, one should work with people suffering from various health conditions and their careers to offer help and support in dealing with their condition. Their work involves helping the patient to recover from their illness or to come to the term with it in order to lead a positive life (Leib, 2008). School nurse may specialize in working with certain people, or in a specific area of disorder. School nurse often work in multidisciplinary teams, working closely with psychologists, psychiatrists and other health professionals.  School nurse responsibilities include carrying out interviews pertaining matters of health and at the same time offering both health and sex education. They are also responsible for developmental screening and the management and overseeing of immunization programs. School nurses may be employed by the school directly or the community trust. Primary care trust and local health authorities are also mandated to employ school nurses. Some states or countries require schools to develop plans that ensure that students with serious health conditions and disorders are accommodate within their schools and they should set up the goals for these students and they are the nurses who develop and ensure that this plans are achieved (Leib, 2008). Therefore a school nurse should be well conversant with the following areas of knowledge health promotion, child protection, family planning, education and screening and some indebt understanding into the health needs of children and teenagers (Sines, Mary, & Forbes-Burford, 2009). School nurses may work at public, private, alternative and early childhood schools. Some practice in foreign countries far away from their homes at international schools or Department of Defense schools located on military bases of the mother country. Nurses should spend most of their days working in health facilities within the school. School nurses also walk from corner to corner within campus vicinity assist students, attending meetings, giving presentations as well as observing learning (Robotham, Frost, & Marion, 2005). They take time to time gather outside the school vicinity with health care providers, public health professionals, politicians and parent groups. Some school nursing positions require regular travel between schools. Only about half of public schools in the United States of America had a dedicated, full-time nurse in 2011. As a result of inevitable funding cuts, majority of the nurses are working on several public schools within districts. Also Majority of school nurses work regular, daytime hours and in some places, they enjoy the same summer and holiday vacations as students and faculty in some countries in the world (Greenhill, 1976). The best part of the school nursing is within the ob environment. In some the students are excited about school, keen in every bit of what you teach them, fun to be around. Nurses are always there to groom appropriate behavior so there are no sudden angers, lack of interest in the present activity and rude comments. The nurse often had to work in cities that have a strong investment in the schools and the socioeconomic status of the population is high (Greenhill, 1976). These portray the difference in the quality of the schools and one has to be aware that not every school is like this. As a school nurse one should also have to be aware of anxiety that result from the seriousness of the event one is engaged in although they rarely occur it sometimes do happen and one should be able to overcome it (Greenhill, 1976). A time frustration took the better part of you when the students overcrowd the room one is working on and this should not be a good reason to bring your working spirit down. To be a school nurse most school in a public school it requires one to be holder of a bachelors degree in nursing and solid experience with a broad medical - surgical base. But still, specific pediatric experience is good but many of nurses did not have this by the time they secure themselves jobs in the field. Most of the schools often go for nurses with great experience in order to hire them but that is not always the case. Some are hired based on their past record. For example few people may apply to be a school nurse but one who may be in the past have been taking elementary school students for outings will most likely secure himself the job due to his demonstration of interest in the age group despite the fact that he may have had very little experience. School nurses also inputs a lot when it comes to development in school curriculum. They work closely with the stakeholders from the education to help develop the best and standard education provided to both physical health providers and the rest in the field they also ensure that whatever is thought in the field is up to date (Loschiavo, 2011). As credited members of the educational team, they work in harmony, cordial relationships with teachers, administrators and community stakeholders to boost learning and raise access to counseling and health care services. Because those students that are emotionally drained often take to them such complaints of illness, nurses are in a better position to notice patterns of conflict and other stressors that have effects on school life (Loschiavo, 2011). Sometimes nurses take upon themselves to start a campaign aimed at reducing bullying in schools and participating in other activities that promote both emotional and social well being of the students. It is always recommended that school nurses should have a minimum of a degree in the field of nursing and ought to have gotten School Nurse Certification. The school nurse should be an expert in the field of public health and mental health nursing and should have strong assessment, health promotion, and referral skills. School nurses also should have knowledge of laws in education and health care that have implications on children in the school setting. The school nurse work without influence or pressure from any body or organization and therefore independence is guaranteed. They need to have strong decision making capacity, strong critical thinking ability, communication skills, individual and classroom education and child advocacy (Loschiavo, 2011). School nurses also have to be pretty aware of the fact that health needs of school community often change over time for a variety of reasons including the change in demographic trends within this schools, increased competitiveness, and quick changes in the accessibility to and application of information technology, and the ‘passive patients’ who have become active consumers are with time becoming much more informed of health and health service availability and expect quality care. to Swanson these new developments in the field of nursing must be factored in when molding the nurses for the future (Luker, Orr, & McHugh. 2012). Extra skills are essential to take care of the ever-rising number of roles expected of a school nurse. Therefore for a fact, the changing needs in the school needs additional requirements on the training institutions to produce nurses who are able to live up to the ever rising demands. An essential part of this factors to be considered involves factoring in of the views of stakeholders drawn from the school setting. Professionalism sends the message across the school fraternity that the school expects school nurses to show professional characteristic. It is always required that nurses keep updating their knowledge by continuously studying and be able to but in to practice that knowledge so that when working it will be able to ask questions when there is any unclear circumstances and welcoming directions and guidance coming from their workmates (Luker, Orr, & McHugh. 2012). As a professional school nurse, one should embrace the idea of teamwork and be able to work with others in an effective and efficient manner although it is often maybe challenging in a team. A school nurse should work smarter to overcome challenges of team work that includes the fact that most of the time you are forced to work in a group that is very big and sometimes the members in the group are strangers, there are also a times a regular changing of staffs and one is forced to adjust to the new staffs hired within the school (Moyse, 2009). In order to overcome some of these challenges, nurses should seek support from each other in work place, uphold jointly rewarding relationships and promote cohesiveness and togetherness. Grindel postulates that it is achievable for nurses to come up with a ‘nurse-friendly’ culture in the school working place so that they can achieve personal objectives and positive organizational rewards (Moyse, 2009). Nurses should come together and get empowered by making sure that they keep abreast with the recommendations of the Nursing professional bodies. School nurse should also learn on how to manage a complex circumstance. This makes it possible for them to master the technical craft of the profession and develop analytical skills and learn the principles that make possible creative adaptations to new circumstances (Leib, 2008). School nurse should be able to cope with stressful work environments. They must accept that nursing is a stressful occupation. Some of the workplace challenges such as dealing with students communication, emotions when dealing with illness and death, working with other health professionals, shift work can have long-term physical, emotional, and psychological problems for the nurse. References Anne Robotham, Marion Frost, & Marion Frost. 2005. Health Visiting: Specialist Community Public Health Nursing. Harvard: Elsevier Health Sciences David Sines, Mary Saunders, & Janice Forbes-Burford. 2009. Community Health Care Nursing. New York: John Wiley & Sons Elizabeth D. Greenhill. 1976. The role of the school nurse as perceived by principals, teachers, counselors, and school nurses in Memphis and Shelby County, Tennessee. Memphis: Memphis State University Janice Loschiavo. 2011. Fast Facts for the School Nurse: School Nursing in a Nutshell: Fast Facts. Ohio: Springer Publishing Company Karen Luker, Jean Orr, & Gretl A. McHugh. 2012. Health Visiting: A Rediscovery. New York: John Wiley & Sons Karen Moyse. 2009. Promoting Health in Children and Young People: The Role of the Nurse. New York: John Wiley & Sons National Association of School Nurses (U.S.). 1990. The role of the school nurse: AIDS/HIV. California: The Association Nadine C Schwab & Mary H. Gelfman. 2005. Legal Issues in School Health Services: A Resource for School Administrators, School Attorneys, School Nurses. Chicago: iUniverse Ruth M. Heath. 1975. Perceptions of the role of the school nurse by teachers, parents, students, school nurses, physicians, and school administrators. Nevada: University of Nevada Teresa F. Leib. 2008. The Role of the School Nurse. New York: Caldwell College Read More