Page 83 - MMP-N-NJ CCN 21st Century School Nurse Leadership Book

IDEAS: How can I use this principle in my practice?

• Access to care: Increase/improve access to care through family exposure and disseminating
resource opportunities. Consistent with improving community levels of care and health literacy,
facilitating health equity for all.
• Cultural competency: Nutrition/health education that is culturally relevant and culturally compe-
tent. Develops culture, ethics and principles that demonstrate district behaviors, attitudes, policies
and structures are in place leading to working effectively cross-culturally.
• Disease prevention: Teaching workshops for parents. Reinforces message of culture of health, sup-
ports community engagement, and integrates school nursing practice with public health tenets.
• Population-based care: Identify school population/community primary health needs. Tenets of
public health addressed to help school nurse prioritize care needs and community interventions.
• Screenings/referral/follow-up: Get assistance to complete screenings and develop strategies/
interventions to follow-up on failed screenings. Promotes community partnering and community
engagement with outside resources.
• Environmental health: Air conditioning in health office and classrooms. Students are affected by
ambient room temperature which may impede their ability to learn and be healthy.
• Risk reduction: Reduce student stress levels. Educate student, staff, faculty, parents on importance
of mental and behavioral health.
• Outreach: Surveillance of community health indicates that many adults (staff and parents) do not
obtain the flu vaccine annually. State requires all preschoolers to have flu vaccine, but not rest of
the students or school staff. School nurses strategizes ways to reduce the health risk with local
community health department. School nurses and health department offer flu vaccine at school to
all students, staff and school community members.
• Health promotion: Monthly health promotions topics. Improving community levels of health
awareness on various health related topics.
• Health equity: Several ideas – mobile health vans, school based health clinics, health department
clinics, federal funded clinics, private inexpensive Nurse Practitioner run clinics, hire school Nurse
Practitioner. Demonstrates interdisciplinary and partnering with community stakeholders.
• Health equity: Food access program. Students and families benefit through access to food.
• Social determinants of health (SDOH): Integrates with care coordination principle to address
SDOH, trauma informed care delivery aspects are included in care planning. Checks and assesses
physical exams, charts, asks teachers, students and parents/guardians when appropriate, other dis-
trict info (i.e. free/reduced lunch, Medicaid roster) for SDOH.
• Social determinants of health: Social media one-day “blackout” – Project Unplug. Assessing social
and behavioral elements of technology on student growth and development.
• Cultural competency: Cultural diversity/perspectives forums. Sharing of perspectives and views to
promote understanding within school community.

Resources:

CDC Foundation. (n.d.) What is public health. Retrieved from http://www.cdcfoundation.org/content/what-
public-health

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. (2010).
Healthy People 2020. Retrieved from https://www.healthypeople.gov/

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