School Nurses 'Taking Care of Business’

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — School nurses commonly serve the children in their school district on a minimal state budget, and the University of Arkansas will provide information this week to nurses interested in seeking additional funding to address specific problems such as obesity.

The seventh annual School Nurse Summer Institute conducted by the University of Arkansas in conjunction with the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences Area Health Education Center-Northwest begins Wednesday, Aug. 1, and runs through Friday, Aug. 3. Sessions will be held this year at the Jones Center for Families, where the Eleanor Mann School of Nursing holds its annual research practice conference each spring. For more details, see the full schedule.

Marianne Neighbors, professor of nursing, and Kathleen Barta, associate professor of nursing, started the summer institute to help school nurses build their leadership skills. They use techniques perfected by the Arkansas Leadership Academy, a service unit of the College of Education and Health Professions, which also houses the nursing school. Nearly 10,000 teachers, principals and other school district personnel in Arkansas have taken part in leadership training since the Arkansas General Assembly created the Arkansas Leadership Academy in 1991.

“We want to help nurses grow in the depth and breadth of their practice,” Neighbors said. “We don’t offer the clinical updates because they can get those elsewhere. We believe nurses need leadership skills as much as principals and other administrators. Nurses are often the only health-care provider in their school building.”

Nurses can receive 15 hours of continuing education credit by attending the three-day institute. The first day offers presentations on grant writing, local grant opportunities from area businesses and industry, state funding opportunities and Medicaid. School nurses can seek grants for equipment for their health rooms or money to pay for materials needed to educate parents about obesity, Neighbors explained. A nurse may plan programs and present information to parents about nutrition, exercise and making lifestyle changes to prevent chronic diseases that result from lifestyle choices.

Funding may also be used to help needy children obtain eyeglasses, hearing aids or a change of clothing or to pay for a doctor’s appointment.

“School nurses frequently get involved in trying to help a family,” Neighbors said. “They are also often the link between a family and whatever community resources are available. Some nurses intervene in what could be serious health situations. The types of projects really depend on the needs of schools.”

The second day includes some discussion of legal issues associated with nursing. Kimberly Hopkins, who earned her bachelor’s degree in nursing from the Mann School before earning a law degree from the University of Arkansas School of Law in Fayetteville, will describe the implications of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act for school nurses. Hopkins, originally from Van Buren, became interested in legal and ethical issues in nursing when she was an undergraduate, prompting her to enter law school. During law school, she also became interested in educating others and now attends the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences working on a doctoral degree.

Hopkins also plans to discuss the options a school nurse has when faced with a task that may be beyond her scope of practice. School nurses may be either registered nurses or licensed practical nurses, and the scope of practice for the two types is different. A registered nurse can offer certain medical care that it is not legal for a licensed practical nurse to do, Hopkins explained.

She will also discuss how federal health-care privacy standards apply in a school setting.

The third day of the institute gets more personal.

“It’s about our internal resources,” according to Neighbors. “What can we do to be better leaders, more professional nurses? If we don’t take care of ourselves, we can’t take care of others.”

Sessions will cover personal financial management; preventing, reducing and dealing with stress; and ensuring personal safety in the school environment.

Many school nurses in Arkansas are active in state and national organizations, Neighbors said. Several recently attended the annual meeting in Nashville, Tenn., of the National Association of School Nurses. Neighbors, Barta and Molly Lloyd, director of school nurses for the Fayetteville School District, presented information at the meeting about a study they conducted of parents’ perception of the body mass index. State law requires schools to measure students’ BMI as a way to combat childhood obesity, and most of the work of taking the measurements and educating children and parents has fallen on school nurses.