School nurses generally serve as the first line of defense for students facing medical issues. In some areas, they’re the only line of defense.
“The school nurse may be a child’s only health care provider for many miles,” said Megan Connelly, DNP, APRN-NP, NE-BC, FACHE, vice president of Community Health and Advocacy at Children’s Nebraska.
Yet nurses at rural schools and in smaller districts often feel isolated and overwhelmed due to limited resources compared to those in metro areas. Rural nurses want more continuing education and access to information that addresses specific problems they experience with children in schools.
To equip school nurses with tools they need to manage a wide range of health concerns, Children’s Nebraska created a YouTube series, offering education and training on crucial aspects of pediatric care.
Connelly said she hopes to empower nurses to enhance student health outcomes across the state. “They can trust that the hospital will provide evidence-based information to give them an expert voice when children and families have questions,” she said.
Being a partner
The videos focus on key topics relevant to school health: sudden cardiac arrest, drug trends among Nebraska teens, suicide prevention, concussion management, cerebral palsy, and other chronic conditions.
Holly Dingman, MS, RD, director of Community Health and Advocacy, leads a team that works with the Nebraska School Nurse Association and other school nurse networks to identify topics of interest and learning opportunities. “We base the content on input from school nurses and different collaborative groups at the state and local level,” Dingman said. “Some videos address timely issues while others remain relevant year after year. We intend to keep growing the library of videos so nurses continue to have access to quality resources.”
Once a topic is determined, the community health team collaborates with internal and external experts to create the video. For example, one video covers the Nebraskan Infection Control for Education (NICE) book — a manual on preventing outbreaks, infectious diseases, and bloodborne pathogens. The hospital’s school health liaison worked with an infectious disease specialist to create the manual after learning school nurses needed basic resources on infection control. The handbook allows school staff to spend less time searching for answers and more time focusing on student health and staff safety.
Sustaining the resources
Children’s Nebraska plans to create educational videos for as long as it’s helpful to the school nurses. So far, feedback has been exceptionally positive.
One school nurse said, “Please keep the knowledge coming. We are so incredibly grateful for everyone’s time and the acknowledgment that pouring into school nurses is valuable to the community at large.”
