Healthy Schools Campaign

Will School Nurse Shortage Hurt H1N1 Fight?

HSC board member Martha Bergren, director of research for the National Assoc. of School Nurses, spoke on the Fox & Friends show today about the role of school nurses in battling outbreaks of disease such as H1N1 in a school setting.

Martha discussed the vital role school nurses play in identifying symptoms of illnesses such as H1N1, keeping more students healthy and more students in school. She also discussed the shortage of school nurses and the fact that school nurses are often stretched thin, serving up to 4 or 5 schools. 

Check out this clip of Martha’s interview:

To learn more about HSC’s programs and resources for school nurses, check out our School Nurse Resource Center.

Spotlight on Saria Lofton, a School Nurse Working with HSC to Improve Student Wellness

By Cynthia San Miguel, HSC Intern

Saria Lofton, a graduate of HSC's school nurse leadership program and a Chicago Public Schools nurse for three years, shared her unique perspective on the role of today's school nurses at HSC's recent breakfast briefing.

Lofton says she was happy to speak at the HSC event because “there are not a lot of voices for school nurses."

School nurses occupy a unique role in schools and, Lofton adds, "I wanted everyone to know that school nurses are underutilized and we have so much to offer; we are not only trained in child health. We deal with every aspect of health in addition to the physical. We try to help people before things happen."

In her speech, Lofton noted this disconnect between perceptions and the realities of school nursing. She explained:

When I begin to talk with people about school nursing, the first response I usually get is: 'I didn’t know they still had school nurses! Your job must be easy, dealing with paper cuts and nosebleeds!'  I usually cringe when I hear that response and I begin to talk about the diabetic students I see, and the health plans I do, and the special education meetings I attend, and how I am the health expert of the school and yes, a small part of my job is handing out Band-Aids but it is much more than that.  And with the help of HSC, I have found how much wellness can play a part in the work that I do. 

In the future, Lofton says, she has even more hopes to encourage student wellness. "I would like a salad bar at one of the schools I work at and a nutrition program developed by the teachers," she says. "I would also like to start a cooking class."

The school nurse leadership program helped Lofton develop her own gift of leadership, she says: "The main thing I learned is that I have a voice and I need to use it to let everyone know what is going on."

View Saria's speech (below) and find out how Lofton used the acronym "SCHOOL NURSE" to spell out all the ways that the HSC school nurse leadership program helped her realize her potential as a leader.

Battling Bugs

By Mark Bishop, Deputy Director

I just wanted to share a little kudos for the current Illinois School Nurse of the Year (and a great HSC supporter I may add) Donna Rehm.

Donna wrote a blog entry about keeping our kids healthy whether they are at home or at school. These are all items that have gotten great attention as we work our way through the current H1N1 scare, but they are always worth repeating. And of course, visit the link for more detail.

Wash your hands often: Especially before eating, after using the restroom, and after playing outside...

Use facial tissues when you sneeze:The Center for Disease Control encourages using facial tissues when you sneeze, cough or blow your nose to minimize cold and flu viruses...

Get Plenty of Rest and Drink Water: I also encourage moms and kids to get plenty of rest and drink adequate fluids – this is effective in helping to boost your immune system.

Don’t come to school when sick: A local Kleenex Anti-Viral survey revealed that 86 percent of moms agree that their child has gotten sick at school due to their 'under the weather' classmate. With this in mind, I ask moms to please keep kids home when they’ve come down with the cold and flu – that way they are not spreading bugs to others.

And for those in the Chicago area, the Lincoln Park Zoo has a flu exhibit where kids get to run around with huge flu bugs and learn about prevention.

This is Not Your Father’s School Nurse

By Mark Bishop, Deputy Director

Boston, Mass.: Home of the Boston Red Sox, site of Paul Revere’s ride, and location of the 2009 National Association of School Nurses Annual Conference.

I went to the conference to give a presentation - along with Donna Fishman, HSC's Director of Training, and Linda Gibbons of National-Louis University - on both our School Nurse Leadership Training Program and our advocacy efforts with school nurses. It was a great conference and we can’t wait to see it come to Chicago in 2010.

Spending so much time with school nurses led to many interesting conversations. One thing I realized is what a struggle school nurses face in trying to break free of the stereotypes and outdated images people have of their profession. I think many of us have memories of a school nurse from when we were kids: the nice lady who gave us aspirin and Band-Aids. This image does not tell the full story anymore.

Today’s school nurse is a highly trained nursing specialist - many states have extra training  requirements for nurses to practice in schools - and the nurses at the NASN conference are committed to professional education and further learning.

In the school settings, school nurses see everything – pregnancies, stabbings, seizures, chemical burns - and they provide a wide range of special health services. These are women (it's true, I didn’t see a single man at the conference other than a few presenters) who have a tough yet highly rewarding job. So please don’t tell them that all they do is dispense Aspirin.

It also became clear to me at the conference that schools are becoming an unfunded safety net for our health care system. I heard many stories about how common it is becoming for parents and students to forgo health services from doctors or hospitals in favor of going to a school nurse.

Parents who can’t afford the cost of care (or even can’t afford their co-pays) are having their kids wait until they go to school to see a health professional: the school nurse. Or families who can’t easily get to a hospital wait to take the school bus the next day to see the school nurse.

This problem is one of economics and access.

Maybe we need to fund more school-based health clinics in low-income areas to assure access to health care for students. Or maybe we should fund school nurses through public health or insurance dollars so school nurses can adequately serve the true needs of our communities without having to compete with money for the classroom (as is often the case now). Remember, a healthy student is going to be more successful in the classroom. We shouldn’t be putting health and education funding at odds.

When we talk about school nursing and the funding that supports it, we need to be realistic about what today's school nurses do and what needs they meet.

The health needs of today's student population are entirely different than when we were growing up, and school nurses are adapting to that need. Perhaps the ways we fund and staff these services need to change too. 

HSC School Nurse Training Graduate Helps Kids Make Healthy Choices

By Mark Bishop, Deputy Director

All of us at HSC were excited to see our name mentioned recently in "Slowing Down a Fast Food Nation," an article in The New Lenox Patriot (New Lenox, Ill.). Not only is this a great story about a school nurse taking leadership in promoting healthy behaviors, but it's also about a graduate of our School Nurse Leadership Program! And it's an interesting spin on a problem we are all faced with -- making healthy choices amid a sea of fast food options. The article explains:

As a school nurse in New Lenox School District 122 since 1992, [Marsha] Ridings has seen an increase recently in the number of overweight students, something that became especially apparent when the calculation of children's body mass index became part of their school physicals. She decided to take action, and last week Ridings' "Healthy Choices" program concluded at Spencer Crossing School with a lunch delivery from McDonald's. But there wasn't a Big Mac in sight.

"We made up a menu with all healthy food from McDonald's and had the kids pick items with nutrition in mind," Ridings said. "Fast food restaurants aren't going anywhere and so the goal is for the kids to try something different...

Ridings, who has been the nurse at Spencer Crossing for three years, first came up with the Healthy Choices program after participating in a Healthy Schools Campaign workshop.

And in Marsha's own words...

I was trying to do something that was very inclusive, that did not single out any one group, but rather taught all kids how to eat healthier!  We all need that, right?! . . .  Just because you are thin or normal weight does not mean that you eat a healthy diet or exercise for that matter.  So we need to keep pushing the message - healthy food choices and get moving! We plan to expand this project to our whole district next year!

Great work, Marsha!

Congratulations to School Nurse Luminary Phyllis Pelt, HSC Board Member

Many congratulations to Phyllis Pelt, a dedicated HSC board member and founding member of HSC's school nurse advisory committee. Phyllis was recognized as a Nurse Luminary by the Luminary Project (which highlights nurses doing exceptional work across the nation and around the world) for her work, on the faculty at University of Illinois College of Nursing, to improve the indoor air quality of a deteriorating urban school building.

On the Luminary Project web site, Phyllis describes her inspiration and challenges:

The energy and eagerness of the nursing students was my major inspiration. ... Unfortunately the catalyst power and pivotal role of the school nurse is poorly understood. ...Years ago these same schools were in excellent shape and even the teachers who had been in the school for many years were not aware of the extent of the mold and mildew problem. Parents had never looked on the second floor and only visited teachers in the hall. They did not realize that buckets were catching water in the classrooms next to student desks.

She also talks about the ways she is continuing her remarkable work, now with HSC:

I have retired from the university and now have more time to devote to work with School Nurse Leadership Training programs with the Healthy Schools Campaign. In that role, I have been able to interact with policy makers including school board members and administrators. Again, my focus is to bridge the gap between theory and practice, taking advantage of the nurse as the logical coordinator of school health services and primary prevention activities and initiatives. I believe that all children, regardless of race or the socio- economic background of their family, deserve to learn in a health-promoting and safe school environment and that school nurses play a big part in making this happen.

From all of us at HSC, congratulations to Phyllis for this well-deserved recognition, and thanks for her tireless dedication to improving the learning environment for our students.

School Nurse Advocacy Day Builds New Relationships in Springfield

By Amanda Chablani, HSC policy intern

On April 16, Healthy Schools Campaign and the Illinois Association of School Nurses brought approximately 30 nurses together in Springfield to raise their voices for school health.

Given that it was only my fourth day as a policy intern with HSC, I wasn’t exactly sure what was going to happen or how much use I would be!  Luckily, the school nurses knew exactly what they wanted from the experience and were comfortable and confident discussing the issues at hand.  In one day, I learned a great deal about the process of advocating for an important cause and about the current issues facing school nurses in Illinois.

The morning began with several of the school nurses advising the Illinois State Board of Education on the importance of a state-level school nurse consultant. A consultant would ensure supportive health services are provided schools across the state and advise the board on school health issues.

After the meeting, we all moved quickly to the Capitol building to meet with Caroline Brown Hodge, the Deputy Chief of Staff to the Governor.  Here, the nurses spoke at length about the school nurse consultant position and the state budget (and whither the two will meet!). 

During lunch at Illinois Education Association headquarters, Mark Bishop offered a good deal of helpful advice on targeting particular audiences in Springfield, identifying the best audience for a particular issue, and how different actors affect state policy decisions. I learned that committee staffers write summaries and recommendations on bills for legislators who may not be able to read through all the thousands of bills they see each session.  Therefore, offering advice and expertise to staffers when a bill is first proposed can allow for a great deal of input.  Essentially, it is sometimes as effective to build a relationship with a staffer as with a representative!

Thus, it was logical that in the afternoon, we met with the staffers on the Education and Health and Human Services Committee to talk about HJR046.  Generally, the staffers were extremely engaged and interested, took good lots of notes and promised to follow-up with questions. Many of the nurses commented on how much more effective this felt compared to trying to connect with their representatives.  Just to cover all our bases, we still made sure to visit our representatives' offices to drop off letters, business cards, and fact sheets [pdf]. 

The day was a great success, the weather was beautiful, and everybody had fun!  I couldn’t have asked for a better introduction to the world of advocacy and can’t wait for another jaunt to Springfield. 

What Lessons from Chicago will Obama and Arne Duncan Take to DC?

By Rochelle Davis, Founding Executive Director

Chicago has been in the spotlight more than usual for the past few months, as President Barack Obama and new Secretary of Education Arne Duncan transition to DC from careers that began in this city. With HSC’s office in Chicago and some of our key programs focused on healthy change in Chicago Public Schools, we have been giving a great deal of thought to the lessons on health and education that our leaders will bring from Chicago to the national policy dialogue.

It’s with this in mind that HSC is pleased to release our new report, Healthy and Ready to Learn: Lessons from Chicago. This report outlines the five lessons on school health that we’d like to see our leaders bring to DC, along with personal stories and policy recommendations for each.

Why do these Chicago lessons matter? We know that one of the greatest challenges facing our leaders is to provide a good education and a health-promoting environment for students in urban school districts serving low-income communities of color. The Chicago Public Schools system serves more than 400,000 students at more than 650 schools. African-American and Latino students comprise 85 percent of the district’s student population. More than 83 percent of the student population is considered low-income, and the district serves more than 56 million school meals per year.

I can’t imagine a more appropriate place for these lessons to originate: both the challenges and the promise of this system make the lessons learned here valuable for our nation as a whole.

I hope you’ll take a moment to check out the full report and share it with your colleagues. We’d love to hear your feedback and invite you to sign on as a supporter of the policy recommendations. But first, let me share a quick summary of the five lessons:

1. A healthy school environment supports learning.
2. Healthy school meals are critical for student health and learning.
3. Physical activity supports student health and helps students focus on learning.
4. School nurses are important for promoting student health.
5. Parent and stakeholder engagement can be a powerful catalyst for making school-based change.

These are simple, common-sense lessons. Although the related policy changes are not always easy to implement, we hope that our leaders will make it a priority to consider these lessons and the value of healthy schools.  As schoolchildren in Chicago can attest, small changes make a big difference: a healthy meal, a few minutes of physical activity and clean classroom air all go a long way to help children focus and do their best at school.

Celebrate School Nurse Day

Today we have a guest blog from Donna Fishman, HSC’s School Nurse Program Director

Today, May 7, 2008, is School Nurse Day.  I would like to take the opportunity to send best wishes to all the school nurses making a difference for the health of their students.  I especially would like to thank the school nurses that have and are currently participating in our School Nurse Leadership training.  We at HSC are constantly amazed by the intelligence, commitment, energy and wisdom of the school nurses we meet in our trainings—not to mention the phenomenal school nurse educators and leaders that comprise our School Nurse Advisory Committee.  I wish everyone knew how important school nurses are to the health and education of our children.

I hope the sun shines everywhere over school nurses today, and that you enjoy the day!

School Nurses Making a Difference through Advocacy

Today we have a guest blog from Linda Gibbons, Director of the School Nurse Certification Program National-Louis University and Illinois Director to the National Association of School Nurses

WOW!

Thanks to the sponsorship and support of the Healthy Schools Campaign, 40 Illinois school nurses traveled to Springfield and spent the day making a difference and advocating for our students and the need for professional school nursing support. 

 
We were able to present our petition for a State School Nurse Consultant at the Illinois State Board of Education meeting with more than 20 nurses present.  Mark Bishop (of Healthy Schools Campaign), Linda Gibbons (of the Illinois Association of School Nurses) and Vyki Jackson (the Illinois School Nurse consultant) presented compelling testimony about the need for coordination at the state level within the Board of Education. The Board members were very supportive of our position, but cited the need for funds and the ability to add positions within the agency.

It was a real "high" for all of us!

Then, we convened with the entire group of school nurse advocates at IEA headquarters for some briefing and to receive materials to bring to the Capitol.  At the Capitol, we were generally well received by both our representatives and senators, and we took commitments that they would vote to support school health and school nursing on a number of specific bills. 

When we reconvened, it was with a group of school nurses who were feeling very empowered to make a difference and to continue the contact with our legislators next week when they are back in their home districts.

It was an exciting day that we hope to make an annual event.

Many thanks to Healthy Schools Campaign for the organization, lunch and support of this important endeavor.

School Nurses left excited about what we can do and energized to really make a difference through legislative advocacy.