Contact: Robin Kish August 19, 2011
Administrator of Public Affairs
561.659.1270 ext 5828
HEALTH CARE DISTRICT’S SCHOOL NURSES BEGIN NEW SCHOOL YEAR
West Palm Beach, FL – As students in Palm Beach County public schools prepare to begin the new school year, more than 200 School Nurses stand ready to deliver quality health care every hour of every school day.
Now in its 13th year, the Health Care District’s School Health program provides a full-time registered nurse in 164 public schools in Palm Beach County’s School District, the 11th largest school district in the nation. School Nurses serve 170,000 students from pre-kindergarten to twelfth grade, treating everything from injuries and illness to chronic diseases.
“School Nurses play a pivotal role in the academic well-being of students,” said the Health Care District’s School Health Administrator Anne L. Hedges, RN, MSN, NCSN. “If you don’t feel well, you’re not going to perform well in school. Having a trained health care professional on site who is prepared to address a variety of medical concerns can make a real difference in the academic career of a student.”
To prepare for the 2011-2012 school year, School Nurses gathered at Palm Beach Gardens High School’s auditorium on August 17th for a day of training and collaboration. This “Nurse Education Day” provides an opportunity for the nurses to receive information on key health topics that could affect students this year. Because School Nurses work independently in school health clinics, the day also serves as a rare opportunity for all the nurses to be together.
“This education day is a valuable time for our nurses, especially as the new school year gets underway,” said Ms. Hedges. “Each nurse carries with them years of experience and insight that they are happy to share with their colleagues.”
The Health Care District’s School Health Program, in partnership with the Palm Beach County Health Department and The School District of Palm Beach County, has evolved to serve as a model for other communities around the nation, maintaining a high nurse-per-student ratio to give parents peace of mind about their child’s health and well-being during the school day. This is especially important to parents of students with a chronic illness. Over 12 percent of Palm Beach County students are monitored for a chronic medical condition, including asthma, allergies, diabetes, epilepsy, and psychiatric disorders.
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During the last school year, School Nurses logged 690,000 visits to their health rooms, some seeing an average of 60 students per day. Their required prior experience in a hospital emergency room, in pediatrics, or community health nursing allows School Nurses to address a wide variety of health issues. For many students, the School Nurse may be the only health care provider they see all year.
“Students who struggle with significant medical issues both at school and at home face real challenges,” said Ronald J. Wiewora, MD, MPH, the Health Care District’s Chief Executive Officer and Chief Medical Officer. “Having a School Nurse on campus to help students and their families learn how to manage a chronic illness not only helps reduce emergency room visits, but also improves academic outcomes because the student is better equipped to stay in class.”
Providing preventive services, such as health screenings for hearing, vision, scoliosis and Body Mass Index (BMI) to identify risk of obesity, are also part of maintaining a student’s well-being. Last year School Nurses, along with 10 school health technicians who travel throughout the School District, provided 105,000 of these student health screenings.
The School Health program utilizes specialized technology in delivering quality health care services to public school students. In 2000, the School Health Program worked with the Health Care District’s Information Technology Department to implement a web-based school nursing electronic medical record system called WelligentTM. The system enables students’ health information to transfer with them as they move from elementary school to middle school to high school. At the time the system was developed, the Health Care District’s School Health Program was the only one in the nation to have such a system in place.
“I am always proud of the dedication and commitment our School Nurses exhibit to students in our community,” said Jonathan R. Satter, Health Care District Board Chair. “They are trained to care for students dealing with a variety of medical issues during the school day and they do so with compassion and professionalism.”
To learn more about the Health Care District’s School Health program and hear personal stories from students and parents, view our video “Staffing Registered Nurses in Public Schools to Keep Students Healthy” on our web site at .
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About the Health Care District:
The Health Care District of Palm Beach County provides health coverage programs for uninsured residents, a nationally recognized Trauma System, dedicated nurses in nearly 170 public schools, a pharmacy, a long-term skilled nursing and rehabilitation center, and acute care hospital services at Lakeside Medical Center, the county’s only public hospital, serving t