Weekly Digest

NASN news & updates

February 25, 2021

President's Message

National Nutrition Month® is an annual campaign created by the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics that takes place during the month of March every year.

This year's theme is "Personalize Your Plate." There is no one-size-fits-all approach to nutrition and health. It may be more difficult right now to know if students in your school are getting the proper nutrition because they may be remote or in a hybrid learning environment.

As school nurses, we need to be on the lookout for possible signs that students are not getting the proper nutrition. Here is some helpful information from the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics that can help spread the word whether your students are in-person, remote, or a combination of the two. The resources are available in multiple languages as well.

Laurie Combe, MN, RN, NCSN

NASN President

BETTER HEALTH. BETTER LEARNING. ™

NASN News and Highlights

Need More COVID-19 Info? Check Out NASN's New Reference Site

NASN’s COVID-19 Reference contains condensed information and evidence-based references and resources designed to assist school nurses in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic as they formulate nursing judgement and participate in planning and policy development.

COVID-19 REFERENCE

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NASN Collaborates With Organizations on Youth Suicide Prevention

NASN recently participated in a three-day Virtual Summit Meeting on Youth Suicide Prevention hosted by the American Academy of Pediatrics, American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, and the National Institute of Mental Health. The outcome will be a Blueprint for Suicide Youth Prevention. At the meeting, the following resources were highly recommended:

Suicide in Schools: A Practitioner’s Guide to Multi-level Prevention, Assessment, Intervention, and Postvention (Erbacher, Singer & Poland, 2015)
The Suicide Prevention Resource Center, including the program Counseling on Access to Lethal Means
Seize the Awkward – how to have conversations about mental health
Programs for teens from the Jed Foundation

NASN-SAGE Site Showcases Current Research

NASN and SAGE have teamed up to provide NASN members with access to school health and child health articles from a selection of journals published by SAGE. Articles will be available for six months and different articles will be highlighted every six months. This new Research Center is designed to increase NASN members’ access to current research related to school nursing and student health.

LEARN MORE

Are You Hiring? Let NASN Help

Don't miss out on the best candidate for the job. Advertise your open positions in the NASN Employment Center: your recruitment solution. We offer packages that include resume bank access, posting for 30 days, and email distribution of your job posting.

Hire smarter. You don't need all the candidates, you need the right ones.

NASN EMPLOYMENT CENTER

COVID-19 Updates

New CDC Guidance for Schools

Operational Strategy for K-12 Schools through Phased Mitigation provides reinforcement of clear and consistent mitigation strategies to open schools and keep them open. CDC also released a science brief on the Transmission of SARS-COV-2 in K-12. This brief addresses schools providing data on the relationship between school transmission, in-person learning, and community rates of transmission. Data demonstrates that in-school transmission of COVID-19 is relatively low.

Department of Education Releases Reopening Guidance

The U.S. Department of Education has released ED COVID-19 Handbook. Volume 1: Strategies for Safely Reopening Elementary and Secondary Schools. The handbook provides examples and roadmaps educators and staff can use to implement CDC's mitigation strategies for in-person learning.

Training for Healthcare Professionals

CDC has resources for training healthcare professionals to administer COVID-19 vaccines. Schools may be used as community sites in the future. Learn more.

CDC Vaccine Data Tracker

CDC has a resource to quickly see how your state or territory is doing compared to others regarding vaccine administration. Additional data is available at this CDC site.

Improving School Community and Student Health

Learn About Epinephrine and Responding to Severe Allergic Reaction

Individuals with food allergies, their families, and the teachers and caregivers of younger individuals should all learn how to respond to a severe allergic reaction. It’s normal to be nervous about learning how to properly use epinephrine. Keep in mind that thousands of people have successfully learned to use these devices, and with practice, anyone can. Download the article.

Managing Chronic Health Conditions

Resources for Managing Chronic Health Conditions in Schools

NASN has a number of resources available to support school nurses caring for students with chronic health conditions, including:

Free 4.25 CNE online course Skills-Based Approach to Managing Chronic Health Conditions
Improving Care Coordination for Student with Chronic Health Conditions Toolkit
Managing Chronic Health Conditions in Schools – Model School Wellness Policy Supplement

All of these can be found on the NASN webpage, Collaboration to Support Students with Chronic Health Conditions. More resources will be coming in early spring!

Opportunities & Networking

Last Chance to Complete Survey on Improving the School Environment

This is the last week to help inform Healthier Generation’s development of a new assessment tool for schools and districts that is focused on the environments, policies, and practices to improve the health and well-being of students and staff. Please consider participating in this 15-minute survey to share your valuable insight!

Mark Your Calendar

NCSSS Student Mental Wellness

Virtual Summit 2021

March 25-26, 2021

Student mental wellness is critically important to everyone in a school community. NASN Executive Director Donna Mazyck, MS, RN, NCSN, CAE, FNASN, will offer the school nurse perspective at the NCSSS Student Mental Wellness Virtual Summit 2021 on the panel, It Takes a Village. Subscribers to the NASN Weekly Digest can attend the conference for a reduced rate of $99 by using code SMHS20 when you register.

Save the Dates

Virtual NASN2021

June 21-25, 2021

Save the dates for Virtual NASN2021, June 21-25, 2021. More information and registration will be coming in March 2021!

NASN Calendar of Events

This calendar includes upcoming events hosted by NASN and NASN affiliate school nurse organizations. Access the calendar.

NASN CALENDAR

National Health Observances Calendar

This calendar lists special days, weeks, or months dedicated to raising awareness about important health topics. Access the 2021 calendar.

OBSERVANCES CALENDAR

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