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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
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