Challenges and Opportunities in Population Health

Abstract

The school nurse role parallels the growing complexity of health care, education, and the social needs of youth in the United States. The complex and chaotic environment of the school setting requires leaders to be flexible and to have the ability to recognize and tackle the ever-changing needs of this environment. School nurses are in a prime position to enact change and drive the culture of the community, giving it purpose, while allowing its members to have a focus on their work. Nurses, as complexity leaders, are positioned to understand that change is a continual process that stems from collaboration, complex systems thinking, and innovation mindsets.

The Role of the School Nurse in the United States, United Kingdom, and Italy During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Scoping Review

“…In the US, school health services are defined by Johnson and colleagues (Johnson, 2020) as marginal, chaotic, and in continuous evolution and school nurses should be flexible leaders able to drive changes (Denke & Winkleblack, 2020). Morse and colleagues (2022) underline the misunderstanding of the role of the school nurse at the community and policy levels, which leads to problems related to funding and job availability for school nurses.…”

Achieving the educational mission: Are Connecticut school nurses valued?

“…Ensuring students attend school and are healthy and attentive is a priority for learning and the K-12 educational mission (Basch, 2011;Centers for Disease Control, 2023). The value school nurses bring to meet the mission is that being with students every day positions them to be first to recognize undiagnosed health conditions and foresee pressing community concerns that affect the health of students and families (Denke & Winkleblack, 2020;Morse et al, 2023). Additionally, school nurses influence upstream social issues known to be detrimental to health by informing local authorities and policymakers about neighborhood social determinants of health, such as food BATTEN | 1515 insecurity, housing, or transportation (National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, 2021;Reiner & Haas-Howard, 2022).…”

Examination of Social Determinants of Health, District Health Needs, School Nurse Caseload, and Academic Outcomes in Washington State

“…Lower caseloads allow the nurse's work to include preventative, population-level care and program management-moving from reacting to individual problems to proactively addressing the health of the school community as a whole. This more complex work requires time for aggregation and analysis of the individual data into the higher level population data to inform program management-all of which requires time to process and analyze (Denke & Winkleblack, 2020). Further, high caseloads also mean that school nurses do not have the time to develop and nurture relationships with students and create a culture of safety for vulnerable students and families (Curtis et al, 2019).…”