Imagine finding out that your school district was gifted millions of dollars to improve access to healthcare for your students and staff! That sounds like a dream for many of us, but it came true in the form of a 23 million dollar gift from two prominent philanthropists, Pivotal Ventures by Melinda French Gates (former wife of Microsoft founder, Bill Gates) and Mackenzie Scott (former wife of Amazon founder, Jeff Bezos). The recipient of the joint gift is the School-Based Health Alliance, the national voice for school-based healthcare.
What an outstanding opportunity for this organization to create a training center for school-based health center expansion. I read the news with great enthusiasm, tempered by the hope that this important work will include school nurses in the design. NASN has collaborated with the School-Based Health Alliance and released a joint statement identifying our unique roles (file included under references).
The inclusion of school nurses is of paramount importance in the effort to expand healthcare services in schools, particularly those serving families with the lowest incomes. School-based health centers (SBHCs) provide a vital source of healthcare where students already spend most of their time: in school. These centers offer a wide range of services, including primary care, mental health, oral health, and vision services, and have been shown to improve both educational and health outcomes. However, the School-Based Health Alliance (SBHA) reports that the 3,900 SBHCs nationwide serve only a tiny portion of the more than 25,000 Title I schools, indicating a significant gap in healthcare access.
The role of school nurses is critical in providing care coordination and ensuring the effective delivery of healthcare services within the school setting. By communicating and sharing information among students, parents, school staff, and other healthcare professionals, school nurses play a key role in helping young people access comprehensive health services and address social factors such as housing, food security, and transportation.
Funding from Mackenzie Scott and Pivotal Ventures to launch care coordination initiatives in several cities, which involves identifying and hiring care coordinators to work in schools that primarily serve students from low-income families, will greatly benefit from the inclusion and collaboration of school nurses. However, the involvement of school nurses in the expansion of healthcare services in schools is essential for ensuring the effective delivery of comprehensive care, addressing social determinants of health, and ultimately improving the health and well-being of students, especially those from families with the lowest incomes.
The role of school nurses in school-based health centers (SBHCs) is multifaceted and essential for providing comprehensive healthcare services to students. School nurses play a crucial role in keeping students healthy and in school, as we provide both individual and population health through our daily access to large numbers of students. School nurse responsibilities include:
- Surveillance and Assessment: School nurses are responsible for surveillance, chronic disease management, emergency preparedness, and behavioral health assessment. We are well-positioned to address and coordinate the healthcare needs of children, understand and educate them about normal development, promote health and safety, and intervene with actual and potential health problems.
- Case Management and Coordination: School nurses provide extensive case management services and actively collaborate with physicians, families, and school staff to ensure the health and well-being of students. We also coordinate care by communicating between the family and health care providers and play a critical role in providing the link between the education system, students, families, community, and medical care. A large portion of our energies include supporting students’ mental as well as physical health challenges.
- Health Education and Support: School nurses deliver health services, conduct vision and hearing screenings, coordinate immunizations, administer insulin, and provide health education to students, families, and staff. We also help students manage chronic health conditions.
We can easily collaborate with other healthcare professionals in school-based health centers (SBHCs) ensuring the effective delivery of healthcare services to students. It should not be an either/or, but an and! The collaboration between school nurses and SBHCs is essential for the success of both, and it involves the following elements:
- Clarifying Roles and Shared Leadership: Successful collaboration requires clarifying the roles of each healthcare professional and establishing shared leadership and program ownership.
- Cooperative Training and Continuing Education: Engaging in cooperative planning and implementation of school health services and programs, as well as negotiating conflict, and maintaining mutual support and respect are vital for effective collaboration.
- Case Management and Care Coordination: School nurses and other healthcare professionals engage in extensive case management and care coordination, ensuring that students’ health needs are met through shared planning and implementation of healthcare services.
- Health Education and Surveillance: School nurses provide ongoing health education and surveillance while collaborating with physicians, families, and school staff to address and coordinate the health care needs of children.
