role CHN nurses can play in a high school setting as health promoters and nursing interventionists

 role CHN nurses can play in a high school setting as health promoters and nursing interventionists

Introduction

Some schools, elementary or high school, host thousands of students every learning day. Can you imagine just how vulnerable the health and safety of these students are? Community Health Nurses (CHN) in school settings take on the responsibility of providing comprehensive healthcare services to students and the school community to create an environment in which better health and education outcomes can be achieved. The community setting for this essay is high school. Most high school students are in the adolescent period during which they are exposed to factors such as peer pressure, self-esteem issues, unhealthy sexual relationships, family crises, and potential drug and substance abuse. CHN nurses in the high school community setting can act as educators, care providers, community liaisons, case managers, and student advocates. Some of the vulnerable populations that CHN nurses serve in a school setting are the students, members of the teaching and nonteaching staff, and the community in general. The purpose of this paper is to explain the role CHN nurses can play in a high school setting as health promoters and nursing interventionists while working with professional support organizations.

Community Setting

The chosen community setting for this essay is the high school setting. High schools have vulnerable student populations that require the intervention of CHN to provide comprehensive health care and health information for better health and learning outcomes. Given that most high school students are also adolescents, they need to be appropriately guided to make the right decisions in line with their health and learning goals. Furthermore, the rest of the school community, such as the teaching and nonteaching staff, maybe vulnerable, particularly when they fall sick and need medical care. The health, physical and mental, risk factors in places with such large numbers are very high, thus necessitating the need for CHNs to provide comprehensive care to attain the highest individual and community health possible.

CHNs in a high school setting play critical roles in ensuring better health outcomes for the school community. CHNs provide health services such as sex and physical education, immunization, emergency care, screening services, and dental and mental health (American Academy of Pediatrics, 2008). Screening services play a significant role in the early identification and treatment of medical conditions. In a high school setting, CHNs can offer these services by following state requirements for screening students before and after entry. Screening can help nurses to identify visual and hearing impairments in learners and to refer them for proper treatment, which can significantly reduce potential loss of vision or hearing. Scoliosis screening and assessments of high blood pressure can also be carried out under screening services. School nurses also develop emergency operations plans and provide emergency care in the event of emergencies such as injuries, disasters, seizures, severe asthmatic attacks, or other conditions that necessitate the provision of emergency care. CHNs also play a role in ensuring that students receive sex education, particularly in states in which sex education in schools is permitted (Borawski et al., 2015). They can offer guidance and counseling services that can help reduce cases of teen pregnancy and STDs and promote healthy relationships.

Health Promotion Nursing Intervention

The World Health Organization defines health promotion as social and environmental interventions that enable people to increase control over their health. Health promotion is essential in a school setting as it empowers learners and the community to take health seriously for better individual and community health outcomes. The CHN can implement several health promotion interventions in a high school setting to enable students to play a vital role in improving their health and learning goals. Nurses can intervene by creating, in collaboration with the administration, programs that educate students on topics such as sex education, self-awareness, adolescence, and substance abuse (American Academy of Pediatrics, 2008; Best, Oppewal & Travers, 2018; Dawe, 2017). These programs can help students to understand their bodies better and can improve self-esteem and learning outcomes. Another intervention can be the development of physical education and nutrition programs that help in the promotion of healthy eating habits and physical exercises to prevent conditions such as obesity. According to Bohnenkamp, Stephan, and Bobo, nurses can also promote health by creating programs that are tailor-made for students with special needs such as anxiety disorders and other mental health issues (2015)

Successful health promotion interventions require the input of all stakeholders. In a high school setting, the CHN can work with the administration, parents, teachers, students, and student leaders, and other members of the society, such as experts on specific fields to deliver the most accurate information to students (Best, Oppewal & Travers, 2018). For instance, the CHN can liaise with the principal, teachers, and student leaders to develop intervention programs such as guidance and counseling sessions, sex education, and physical exercises.

Professional Nursing Organization

The National Association of School Nurses is one of the leading organizations in the promotion of school health in the United States (National Association of School Nurses, 2020). The organization’s vision is to keep students safe, healthy, and ready to learn. The NASC aims to achieve its vision by optimizing student learning and health through the practice of school nursing. The organization’s position is that for learning and health to be optimized, a registered nurse should be present in every school all day, every day.

The NASC has been at the forefront in advocating for the presence of school nurses in all schools all the time so that they can offer health services and promotion interventions for school children and the youth. The organization also advocates for school nurses to be actively involved in the collection of school health data and the ethical use of this data in carrying out research activities that can improve the health of school communities. The NASC is currently pushing for the implementation of the framework for 21^st-century school nursing practice and is also implementing the school emergency triage training program to equip nurses with skills, knowledge, and equipment to lead in first aid interventions in response to mass casualty events.

Summary

This paper introduced CHN roles in a high school setting and discussed the various health promotion interventions that can be implemented in such an environment. The paper further discussed a professional organization, the NASC, that helps nurses in the provision of health services within a school setting. Some of the identified roles of CHN in a high school setting include immunization, emergency care, screening service, and sex and physical education. Some intervention programs identified herein include sex and substance abuse awareness programs, nutrition and physical exercise programs, as well as programs, tailor-made for students with special needs. CHN nurses indeed play a critical role in the provision of health services and the promotion of health in the communities they operate in a while working with the community and professional nursing organizations.

References

American Academy of Pediatrics. (2008). Council on school health. Role of the School Nurse. Retrieved from https://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/121/5/1052. Doi: 10.1542/peds.2008-0382

Best, N. C., Oppewal, S., & Travers, D. (2018). Exploring school nurse interventions and health and education outcomes: An integrative review. The Journal of School Nursing, 34(1), 14-27. (1) 14-27. Doi: 10.1177/1059840517745359

Bohnenkamp, J. H., Stephan, S. H., & Bobo, N. (2015). Supporting student mental health: The role of the school nurse in coordinated school mental health care. Psychology in the Schools, 52(7), 714-727. Doi: 10.1002/pits.21851

Borawski, E. A., Tufts, K. A., Trapl, E. S., Hayman, L. L., Yoder, L. D., & Lovegreen, L. D. (2015). Effectiveness of health education teachers and school nurses teaching sexually transmitted infections/human immunodeficiency virus prevention knowledge and skills in high school. Journal of School Health, 85(3), 189-196. Doi: 10.1111/josh.12234

Dawe, N. J. (2017). A school nurse-led health promotion program in a secondary school setting. British Journal of School Nursing, 12(8), 376-381. Doi: 10.12968/bjsn.2017.12.8.376

National Association of School Nurses. (2020). Home. Retrieved from https://www.nasn.org/home