In order to minimize spread of COVID-19 and keep schools open, school staff -- including teachers, specialized instructional support personnel (school counselors, school nurses, school psychologists, school social workers, physical and occupational therapists), aides, food service and custodial workers -- and principals need to be considered as essential groups for access to COVID-19 vaccination.

NASN and school nurses have been widely represented in the news media over the past few months and we are now including a section in the Weekly Digest to highlight some of those stories twice a month. If you have a story about school nurses you'd like us to consider including, please send it to us.

Sesame Street has released new resources to support families, Caring for Each Other, during the COVID-19 pandemic. The resources are available in multiple languages and include videos, games and apps, coloring pages, and guidance for parents to talk to children about COVID-19.

The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), a part of the National Institutes of Health, released updates to the national guidelines for the diagnosis, management, and treatment of asthma. The 2020 Focused Updates to the Asthma Management Guidelines are published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology and is now posted on the NHLBI website and include a digital toolkit.

Nurses are role models, educators, and advocates, and can influence the health of patients, families, and communities. However, the overall health of American nurses can often be worse than that of the general population. The Healthy Nurse, Healthy Nation™ (HNHN) Grand Challenge, launched in 2017, aims to improve the health of the nation by first improving the health of its nurses. This presentation reports data from 18,500 nurses and nursing students nationally over a period of two years. Nurses will be able to retake the HealthyNurse® survey, which will provide a mechanism for longitudinal tracking of progress. This course was originally presented at Virtual NASN2020 and is now available in the NASN Learning Center. Learn more or enroll in Healthy Nurse, Healthy Nation.

To improve student health and academic outcomes, school nurses must recognize their leadership potential in the provision of health services at the school/district level, their role in supporting school nurse organizations/affiliates at the state level, and ultimately reinforcing the voice of school nursing at the national level. Learners will identify where they are on their leadership path through evaluation and self‐reflection using current leadership theory tools. By taking this course, participants will better understand their role in advocacy, education and policy reform, professionalism, and systems‐level leadership. This course was originally presented at Virtual NASN2020 and is now available in the NASN Learning Center. Learn more or enroll in Your School Nursing Leadership Journey: Let’s Get Started!

Join NASN at 3 p.m. EST on December 11 for a presentation by CDC about toolkits for school personnel to use to consider and implement COVID-19 mitigation strategies in their K-12 schools to help reduce the risk of COVID-19 as in-person classes resume in the new year.

Join Child Trends, the National Center for School Mental Health, the Division of Adolescent and School Health at CDC, and the Center for Health and Health Care for a discussion about building school mental health systems that support the teachers, nurses, and school administrators on the front lines of keeping our children healthy and safe during COVID-19.

We learned a lot this year when COVID turned U.S. schools into – among other things – the epicenter of food insecurity in America. And it appears far from over. But now it’s time to look forward and embrace best practices that make schools the whole-child and whole-health environments they need to be.

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