Promoting Self-Care at School for Students With Chronic Health Needs

Abstract

For educators to maximally support students with chronic health needs (CHNs), they must have an understanding of self-care and how to promote it. Self-care is a complex learned behavior that emerges from and develops through family, health, and educational support networks (Vallis, Higgens-Bowser, Scott, Murray, & Edwards, 2004). It encompasses the actions people with CHNs take to maintain their life, health, and own well-being (Orem, 2001). An essential part of school-aged children's self-care involves assistance with the administration of medical procedures, including practice with life-sustaining technologies, medicine intake, and logging of tests results or observed health behaviors (Jackson, 2013), as well as the socio-emotional support from parents, peers, and school personnel needed to manage the psychosocial aspects of living with particular health conditions (Richard & Shea, 2011). Children who learn to enact these self-care behaviors in their everyday lives have improved academic performance and enjoy a higher likelihood of social inclusion (Mukherjee, Lightfoot, & Sloper, 2000). Approximately 30% of elementary and secondary school-aged children in Canada have at least one chronic health condition (CHC), with asthma, allergies, and diabetes being among the most commonly reported subtypes (McDougall et al., 2004). It is estimated that between 3% and 30% of the pediatric population with CHCs worldwide have associated limitations in cognitive, physical, and/or psychosocial development (Shiu, 2004). Accordingly, general and special education teachers are uniquely positioned to address students' CHNs as a means of promoting these students' academic achievement and well-being, with the promotion of self-care a critical aspect of this responsibility (Nabors, Little, Akin-Little, & Iobst, 2008).

An Analysis of Recommendations on Psychological Well-Being During Open and Distance Learning (ODL): Students’ Viewpoints

“…18, Issue 2 (Aug) 2023 135 spiritual practices, despite the difficulties posed by the pandemic and online learning. According to Cousins and DeLuca (2017), encouraging self-care is a crucial component of fostering students' overall wellbeing who have ongoing medical needs, particularly those related to their mental health. Essentially, this supports previous research (Cook-Cottone, & Guyker, 2018;van Vliet et al, 2018;Cleofas, 2021) suggesting that students who engage in effective self-care are more invested in their studies, even in online classes.…”