What’s Up With Step Up! ? Year 2!

School nurses intervene with students, parents, and school staff to advance the health and academic success of students. We conducted an integrative literature review of published research to describe the types of school nurse interventions and health and education outcome measures and to examine how school nurse interventions were linked to student outcomes. Sixty-five studies met the inclusion criteria. We used the National Association of School Nurses' Framework for 21st Century School Nursing Practice to categorize school nurse interventions and health and education outcome measures. The majority of interventions were categorized under the care coordination principle, most commonly, motivational interviewing and counseling. In 17 studies, school nurse interventions were linked to improved student outcomes. Most studies (80%) were descriptive. To advance school nursing science, researchers can build on this foundation with more rigorous research methods to evaluate the impact of school nurse interventions and activities on student health and education outcomes.

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Step Up & Be Counted! aims to accomplish this through standardized data points and reporting structure (Johnson et al, 2017; Leroy et al, 2017; Maughan et al, 2014).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring School Nurse Interventions and Health and Education Outcomes: An Integrative Review

Best

Oppewal

Travers

2017

“…While data on school nurse health services do exist, the data sets are disparate, not collected in a standardized format, and do not describe school nurse health services and student outcomes over time. North Carolina, however, is a leader in data collection (Johnson et al, 2017). Since the 1996-1997 school year, the North Carolina Division of Public Health has collected data submitted by school nurses based on their records of health services provided in assigned schools.…”

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confidence: 99%

An Appraisal of School Nurse Health Services and Programs in North Carolina Public Schools, 2006–2016

Best

Nichols

Oppewal

et al. 2020

School nurses are instrumental in delivering health services to children in schools. This study addresses the gap in school nurse health services data, examining patterns in health services and programs provided by school nurses between 2006 and 2016 for students in North Carolina public schools. This study focused on services and programs related to asthma and diabetes, two health conditions that affect millions of children in the United States. Over 1.46 million children attend North Carolina public schools. In 2006, the average school nurse-to-student ratio was 1:1,340. By 2016, the average school nurse-to-student ratio decreased to 1:1,086, a 19% improvement. Over the 10-year study time period, there were statistically significant increases in the rate of occurrence of all health conditions that students received health services for ( p < .001), asthma ( p < .001), type I diabetes ( p = .0003), orders for all health-care procedures ( p = .01), all school nurse–led health counseling ( p = .004), and diabetes health counseling ( p < .01).

“…Aiken was able to account for the unique contribution of educational preparation because important nurse sensitive outcome data identified through research were available. A NASN program is advancing an empirical accounting of students' needs as well as the nurses who are providing for health services (Johnson et al, 2017). The NASN effort will be a base for an "Aiken-like" study in school nursing.…”

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confidence: 99%

What Does It Take To Be a School Nurse?

Cowell¹

2018

Answering the question, what does it take to be a school nurse, starts with reflecting personally on my own story. I am a graduate of a diploma nursing program, and my first job was at a public health department where I was based in a public school to do district nursing, which included school nursing services to the school. I was the only nurse in the district office without at least a bachelor of science in nursing (BSN). I was hired because I was enrolled in a BSN completion program, and there was a position to fill. I had great experience in my diploma school in acute pediatrics, but not one of the students in the school needed that expertise. The school was in a very poor area, and the students and families for the most part were rural migrants having come to the city for work. Problems included malnutrition, dental problems, lack of follow through on vision and hearing screening, immunization refusal, health illiteracy, child abuse, and poor access to health care. I was totally dependent on my mentor and more educated peers. The first step of the six "As" of evidence-based practice is to "Ask the question" (Yonkaitis & Maughan, 2018). Let me tell you, I did not know enough to ask a question or, in fact, to be a school nurse. Subsequently with the completion of the BSN, MSN, and PhD, and from my initial experience, I champion the preparation of the school nursing workforce! The National Association of School Nurses (NASN) calls for the BSN from an accredited college or university for entry into the practice of school nursing (https://schoolnurse net.nasn.org/blogs/nasn-profile/2017/03/13/education-licen sure-and-certification-of-school-nurses). The scope and standards of practice guide school nursing practice (NASN, 2017). Why are the baccalaureate and scope and standards important? The baccaluareate in nursing is important because as a profession, nursing must identify and define its own necessary preparation rather than leaving preparation requirements to some other discipline. Nursing education programs are accredited by the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) or by the National League for Nursing (NLN). The accreditation criteria distinguish curricula outcomes for diploma, associate degree, and baccalaureate in nursing, all of which prepare graduates to be licensed as registered nurses (RN). BSN content goes beyond direct care to include population health, using evidence for practice and quality improvement. The scope of practice at different educational levels is spelled out in scope of practice publications developed by nursing members of the American Nurses Association (ANA). The scope for all RNs is: