NASN Position Statement: Student Access to School Nursing Services

Are you feeling stressed lately? Have you visited the Healthy School Nurse Community in SchoolNurseNet? NASN has developed a new resource with mindfulness moments, released each week in February 2022. Make yourself a priority, participate in the moments, and share with your school nurse colleagues. 

This section highlights news stories featuring NASN and school nurses. If you have a story about school nurses you'd like us to consider including, please send it to us.

Kaiser Permanente's Thriving Schools team recently released their latest COVID-19 Vaccine Confidence video. This video shows parents, a pediatrician, and school personnel underscoring the importance of getting vaccinated to keep our schools healthy and safe. This video is part of the COVID-19 Vaccine page for schools, districts, and community partners, offering information and resources on the safety and effectiveness of the COVID-19 vaccine for children.

The American Lung Association convened a roundtable to develop a resource for healthcare professionals to increase vaccination rates for youth. Individual community leaders must empower their trusted messengers, including school nurses, with effective messages to overcome barriers to vaccination in their communities and advocate for policies for infrastructure to deliver vaccines in varied settings like schools and community centers. Learn more.

Strong confidence in COVID-19 vaccines within communities leads to more adults, adolescents, and children getting vaccinated ― which leads to fewer COVID-19 illnesses, hospitalizations, and deaths. Learn more about how schools can increase vaccine confidence and check out the reports and resources here.

NASN’s 54th Annual School Nurse Conference offers two separate learning events in 2022 to meet the needs of all school nurses, amid pandemic health, travel, and economic concerns. Each event will feature its own sessions and speakers.

NASN has developed online learning modules for the learner to gain an understanding of the CRAFFT 2.1 and CRAFFT 2.1+N assessment tools. They are geared toward school-age students to assess potential substance and nicotine use and/or abuse by gaining an understanding of the importance of maintaining student confidentiality, the different risk levels identified in the assessment tool, how to administer the assessment tool in the school setting, and reflect on how they can change their daily practice. Explore these NASN online events by registering here for 1.5 NCPD CNE.

In 2019, the Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments (ANHE) launched the first-of-its-kind Environmental Health Nurse Fellowship program. This program trains nurses to work with communities in tackling serious environmental health issues with an emphasis on climate and health equity. AHNE's second cohort of the Environmental Health Nurse Fellowship Program will be from June 1, 2022, to May 31, 2023. Applications for the program are open now, and the submission deadline is March 20, 2022. Participants will be notified of acceptance by April 8. Learn more and apply.

The ANHE released a short video of two nurses, Gloria E. Barrera (IASN President) and Dr. Roxana Chicas, talking about why clean car standards help to reduce air pollution and address the health impacts of climate change. View the video.

Each February, the American Dental Association (ADA) sponsors National Children's Dental Health Month to raise awareness about the importance of oral health. This month-long national health observance brings together thousands of dedicated professionals, healthcare providers, and educators to promote the benefits of good oral health to children, their caregivers, school nurses, teachers, and many others. Find ADA resources here.

Rare Disease Day is the globally-coordinated movement on rare diseases, working toward equity in social opportunity, healthcare, and access to diagnosis and therapies for people living with a rare disease. Since its creation in 2008, Rare Disease Day has played a critical part in building an international rare disease community that is multi-disease, global, and diverse– but united in purpose.

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