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Attention Current Members

St. Louis Suburban School Nurses is about 133 members strong as of the end of October and we are excited and thankful for all the school nurses who make our voice stronger, not only at the district level but state and national as well.  Our Speaker series is off to a great start and we look forward to all the opportunities to advance the well being, academic success, and life-long achievement of students, family, school community, and the larger surrounding community. (NASN mission statement).

In September, Dave Day, a 27 year veteran of the St. Louis Special School District and speech-language therapist gave an engaging presentation on new strategies for those with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) called RDI or Relationship Development Intervention.  Dave provided 2007 evidence based data from Steven Gutstein, Ph.D. on strategies that work to improve the dynamic intelligence or those neurotransmissions that allow rapid, innovative responses to complex, novel problems and settings which the child with ASD find difficult to navigate.  Parents, family and other invested adults become the guides to implement these strategies to improve the ASD child/adolescent’s ability to function successfully in real world relationships/situations.  “The challenge is to make the effort to understand and appreciate the thousands of elegant steps it takes to become a fully competent human being.  The opportunity is the permission we are given, when we become the guide for someone with ASD, to admire the daily miracle of development.” (Gutstein).

Last week, on October 23rd, we were privileged to have Janice Selekman, DNSc., RN, NCSN, author of School Nursing: A Comprehensive Text, speak at our Fall Workshop on “Maximizing the Health of Missouri Children: Proving Why School Nurses Are Needed” Janice (she prefers that to Dr. Selekman) provided a passionate and humorous presentation on how school nurses “support student learning by acting as an advocate and liaison among the home, the school, and the medical community regarding concerns that are likely to affect a student’s ability to learn.” (NASN, 2000).  She delineated what makes us more effective than the school secretary or clinic aide. Janice focused on stressing that we as a professional body need to supply our school administrators and communities with proof of outcomes that directly affect student learning such as lower BMIs, results of referrals made, improved self esteem and mental health, and less absenteeism.  She challenged us to ask child/adolescent healthcare providers to add to all HIPPA forms the following statement, “I give permission for necessary information related to my child’s condition to be shared with the school nurse”, even though the original HIPPA laws provide this “express permission to disclose protected health information about an individual to a healthcare provider for that provider’s (that would be us) treatment of an individual” (USDHHS, 2003).  Janice ended our time together with the repeat challenge to demonstrate the efficacy of our practice by having outcomes that show that we make a positive difference, to keep ourselves updated with evidence based or at least best practice, involve the community and get the word out, especially to administrators and the public, about both the practice and the profession of school nursing.  How do we keep updated??  By being involved in our professional organization, networking and attending conferences/workshops sponsored specifically for school nurses ... OK, I’m preaching to the choir here ….  Finally, it’s not how hard you work … it’s the outcomes!!

To make the evening an even bigger blessing, Dianne Herndon, our Award’s Chair, presented Linda Neumann, RN with our district’s “School Nurse of the Year” award.  After listening to Dianne’s presentation regarding Linda’s passion for school nursing and Linda’s accomplishments, it was no wonder that Linda achieved this honor. 

SLSSNA is blessed to have great resources to provide the fuel for school nurses to achieve the outcomes that Janice Selekman spoke about and Linda Neumann represents the “can do” attitude to accomplish those achievements.   Our district is looking forward to the next six monthly speakers to improve our knowledge and competency as we strive for evidence based and best practice.

Respectfully submitted October 30, 2008 – Mindy Bielik, RN, BSN

 
Who We Are

St. Louis Suburban School Nurses' Association is a district of the Missouri Association of School Nurses. We serve and support approximately 340 public and private school nurses in the metropolitan St. Louis area. We offer monthly meetings featuring speakers on topics of various interests to our membership. We present an annual Fall Workshop in October and co-sponsor School Nurse Survival Training every summer.

Our Mission is to educate, support and enhance the professionalism of School Nurses in the promotion of School Health.

Our Vision is to promote recognition of School Nurses as Professionals by all stakeholders. 

Please explore our website to learn more about us.

 
A Letter from our President

Fall 2008 – 2009 School Year

Welcome Back to School from the President:

I hope all of you had some time to relax and be refreshed this summer.  From the April MASN conference in St. Joseph, MO to our own rich regional summertime offerings like “School Trends”, “School Nurse Survival”, and “School Tools”, I’ve been amazed at the number of opportunities we have to learn about relevant and evidence-based information to strengthen our school nurse practice.  Several of our constituents also traveled to Albuquerque, New Mexico for the annual NASN Conference, keeping us connected to a “bigger voice” for school nurses.  Personally, I appreciated the opportunity to review and learn the latest clinical skills and procedures for specialized care at the new state-of-the-art simulation patient care lab at the Goldfarb School of Nursing on the BJC campus during School Nurse Survival in July.  I was also thankful to be able to hear Barbara Bogomolov provide up-to-date information on the St. Louis refugee and immigrant population health care needs.  I learned that Missouri is one of only two states designated as a “free case refugee settlement” state and that in the last 10 years the number of LEP (limited English proficient) individuals has increased by 423%.  In St. Louis, we have gone from 13 different languages in 1996 to 73 in 2007.  That dramatically changes and impacts many of our schools demographics and culture.  I encourage you to contact Barb as a resource at This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it
As this upcoming school year approaches, I encourage all of you to attend the monthly speaker series at St. Luke’s Hospital.  Sometimes I will look at a topic and think, “Well that isn’t very relevant to me’ … or ‘I think I’ve had all the Asthma information my brain can hold …”.  So I drag my tired and not-so-little-self off and invariably come away thinking, “I am so glad I attended … I didn’t know that!” …  and will be re-energized by having additional resources not only to implement in my own practice but also to share with my fellow district nurses. Many times it is some great suggestion made by a participant rather than the speaker that I am able to apply. 
We are particularly excited to have Janice Selekman, RN DScN, editor of School Nursing, A Comprehensive Text, as our keynote speaker at the October Workshop at Norwood Hills Country Club.  Many thanks go to the Wentzville school nurses for hosting and coordinating this evening.
Please consider joining SLSSNA, even if you have a limited ability to attend the monthly speaker series. We really do need your “voice” to keep us encouraged and growing strong.  Your additional support via membership means so much. Lastly, I encourage you to contact us either via this website or calling one of us on the board of directors or committee list and consider serving on a committee.  I have appreciated how much more I receive than I give by serving on our St. Louis district board as well as going to and participating at our MASN board meetings and conferences.  We also welcome any feedback for better communication with you.  Have a wonderful 08-09 school year. 

 

Mindy Bielik, RN BSN President SLSSNA 

 
© 2008 SLSSNA
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