Friday, April 26, 2013
Thursday, April 11, 2013
Pam Schaal, School District RN, discusses how eSchoolCare's Asthma Module helps her students
Our first guest blog comes from Pam Schaal, School District RN from the Mount Horeb Area School District in Wisconsin.
What do you say when someone asks you “what is a typical day for a school nurse?” I often chuckle and reply ”there is no typical day”. I have to be honest, that is one of things I like about my job. I enjoy the variety of the student needs and the challenge of making health care work in the community setting.
While we all know this can be challenging, it also gives us an opportunity to impact children’s health in a very real way. It is not uncommon for us to start a day with a student and a parent standing at the office door with new orders and meds. As the only dedicated healthcare providers in schools, we are responsible for making sure that new orders are followed so that children with chronic health conditions can succeed in school.
eSchoolCare focuses on five chronic health conditions commonly managed in schools. One of the five chronic conditions is asthma. In years past I have struggled to find training materials, teaching tools and resources appropriate for school staff and students. I’ve spent hours trying to find or create templates for IHPs and Asthma Action Plans and never really felt confident that the information is unbiased and legally sound. The other challenge has been to find a way to present the information effectively to parents, students and non-medical school staff. eSchoolCare is the resource that we have needed.
I have been using the eSchoolCare asthma training videos with the school staff for more than a year. The staff have shared that they like the videos because they are brief and they feature real nurses interacting with real children. The videos model different interactions with different aged children. All of this really helps the staff feel more confident in supporting their students. I see a huge difference in the attention they give to our asthmatic students and that translates into better outcomes.
I’ve also used the eSchoolCare videos as a teaching tool with students and I am amazed at the impact it has had on improved self-management of asthma. I have a first grader who we trained with eSchoolCare, who also was able to teach her mom the right way for her to take her inhaler. I had a fourth grader bring to school a new inhaler she was given in the emergency department the night before and no one had shown her how to use it. Using eSchoolCare, we were able to teach her how to properly use the inhaler when it is required. I also had a second grader reduce her inhaler usage from twice daily to once or twice a week after we worked with her!
What started out 100 years ago as a public health idea to improve attendance and reduce the spread of germs in the New York public schools has become a nursing specialty that is an integral part of our schools and health care systems nationwide. It’s not very often that something comes along just for us. But maybe this is a good sign of things to come.
What do you say when someone asks you “what is a typical day for a school nurse?” I often chuckle and reply ”there is no typical day”. I have to be honest, that is one of things I like about my job. I enjoy the variety of the student needs and the challenge of making health care work in the community setting.
While we all know this can be challenging, it also gives us an opportunity to impact children’s health in a very real way. It is not uncommon for us to start a day with a student and a parent standing at the office door with new orders and meds. As the only dedicated healthcare providers in schools, we are responsible for making sure that new orders are followed so that children with chronic health conditions can succeed in school.
eSchoolCare focuses on five chronic health conditions commonly managed in schools. One of the five chronic conditions is asthma. In years past I have struggled to find training materials, teaching tools and resources appropriate for school staff and students. I’ve spent hours trying to find or create templates for IHPs and Asthma Action Plans and never really felt confident that the information is unbiased and legally sound. The other challenge has been to find a way to present the information effectively to parents, students and non-medical school staff. eSchoolCare is the resource that we have needed.
I have been using the eSchoolCare asthma training videos with the school staff for more than a year. The staff have shared that they like the videos because they are brief and they feature real nurses interacting with real children. The videos model different interactions with different aged children. All of this really helps the staff feel more confident in supporting their students. I see a huge difference in the attention they give to our asthmatic students and that translates into better outcomes.
I’ve also used the eSchoolCare videos as a teaching tool with students and I am amazed at the impact it has had on improved self-management of asthma. I have a first grader who we trained with eSchoolCare, who also was able to teach her mom the right way for her to take her inhaler. I had a fourth grader bring to school a new inhaler she was given in the emergency department the night before and no one had shown her how to use it. Using eSchoolCare, we were able to teach her how to properly use the inhaler when it is required. I also had a second grader reduce her inhaler usage from twice daily to once or twice a week after we worked with her!
What started out 100 years ago as a public health idea to improve attendance and reduce the spread of germs in the New York public schools has become a nursing specialty that is an integral part of our schools and health care systems nationwide. It’s not very often that something comes along just for us. But maybe this is a good sign of things to come.
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