Importance of a School Nurse in the Health Care of Students

Running head: SCHOOL NURSE
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School nurse
Name
Institution

SCHOOL NURSE
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School nurse
According to Loschiavo (2011), the ability of a student to learn is determined by his or
her health and well-being. Students with good health tend to be active in school activities like
learning. Good health and well-being are the key determinants of great performance in school.
Therefore, presence of nurses in learning institution is important because they help in providing
health care services to students through follow up appointments, education and assessment
(Michael, 2011). These are some of their professionalism actions required by the national
association of school nurses. Nurses are required to have positive effects towards the care of
students when proving these actions. This paper would therefore discuss the importance of a
school nurse in the health care of students.
The primary health care nurse role that will be discussed in this paper is a school nurse.
The major role of school nurses is to ensure that the students are in good health for their
academic success (Kate, 2013). This role ideally puts together education and health care. For the
nurses to ensure all students undergo a good educational process, there are vital areas they should
deal with which are clearly stated in the national association of school nursing board. These areas
includes physical, social needs, emotional and mental health of learners.
According to Susan (2015), the roles of a school nurse includes, giving direct care to
students. For example, give care to students with injuries and also those with acute illness. They
also provide education on long term management to students with special needs. One of their
primary responsibilities is to ensure that the assessment and treatment is in accordance with the
scope of professional nursing practices. Nurses are also supposed to communicate to parents
about their children’s health and give referrals to those who need advanced health care (Michael,
2010). A nurse is also responsible for developing an individual health care plan for students with

SCHOOL NURSE
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special needs like chronic diseases and communicate it to the school personnel. This would help
them to receive good treatment from all the school personnel.
Secondly, a school nurse acts as a leader in the provision of health services (Lea, 2015).
He or she is responsible in assessing the overall system of care, developing plans to ensure
healthcare needs are met. This includes keeping information of the student’s health and
communicating confidential issues to their parents. Thirdly, a school nurse is responsible for
ensuring a healthy environment (Linda, 2013). In this case, nurses supervises immunization
processes to ensure that students get immunized for correct diseases. They also communicate to
the school about communicable diseases, ensuring playing grounds are free from health hazards
and making sure student are not bullied.
Moreover, school nurses promotes health by giving education to students (Pamela, 2018).
This includes telling them the risks of bullying others in school. They also tell them the
importance of taking medication as prescribed and doing regular exercises. Lastly, school nurses
acts as a counselor by giving students guidelines on how to manage their health and
disadvantages of smoking (Anne, 2012). They also communicate to parents on the importance of
taking their children for a checkups.
Primary care is a day to day care given to a person by a health provider (Guzys & Petrie,
2014). This health provider acts as the first advocate and chief to a continuous care and may
include other specialists who the patient may need. Primary care is an element of primary
healthcare. Primary health care refers to the crucial health care that is based on systematically
sound, socially suitable methods and technology, which makes entire health care available to all
(Guzys & Petrie, 2014). A school nurse can be referred as a primary healthcare nursing role
because his or her duties includes giving direct care to students, promoting health, acting as a