Who's Leading the Leading Health Indicators?
Starting in January 2012, the Healthy People 2020 News You Can Use updates will be transformed into a new resource called Who's Leading the Leading Health Indicators? The Leading Health Indicators (LHIs) are a smaller set of Healthy People 2020 objectives that have been selected to communicate high-priority health issues to the Nation. Learn more.
Healthy People 2020 Launch:
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) officially launched Healthy People 2020 on December 2, 2010.
posted to this site 11/23/10
NASN continues to stay engaged in the HP2020 process
School nurses were heard at each of the public meeting sites and written recommendations were submitted by NASN and individual school nurses prior to the end of the year deadline.
Click here for more information on the process.
posted to the NASN Weekly Digest 01/07/10
The following recommendations were submitted by NASN during the public comment process.
NASN finds that the document's proposed objectives do not place an emphasis on the importance of school nursing.
posted to this site 01/08/10
- Increase the proportion of the Nation’s elementary, middle, and senior high schools that have a full- time registered nurse-to-student ratio of at least 1:750.
- Increase the proportion of the Nation’s elementary, middle, and senior high schools that have a full-time registered nurse available to students.
- The National Association of School Nurses (2007) found in a nationally representative sample that 45% of schools have a full time registered nurse (40% elementary schools, 53% of middle schools, 53% of high schools). However, 25% of the nation's children do not have access to a registered nurse at all, and 15% of the schools have no employee assigned to school health services.
- The average school nurse served 1151 students in 2.2 schools. However, there are wide disparities between and within states, with school nurses serving over twice the recommended number of students in 18 states, and over 4 times the number of recommended students in 5 states. School nurses are often the only health care available to children who are immigrants or refugees, homeless or uninsured. Forty-one percent of school-aged children in the US are low income and receive a free or reduced price lunch.
- While school nursing services fall far below recommended levels, the need for health care in schools has increased over the last decade. Newly diagnosed cases of diabetes have almost doubled in the last 10 years (CDC, 2008). Food allergies and anaphylaxis have doubled. Children in special education increase from 8% of the school population in 1977 to 14% in 2006 (NCES, 2007). Within special education, the children with health conditions have doubled since 2001 (NCES, 2007). With the increased NICU survival rates, the number of children with neuro-developmental problems has increased. Children who survived NICU who have no disability or mild disabilities as infants and toddlers, a significant number have moderate to severe disabilities at school age (Marlow, Wolke, Bracewell, 2005; Hoestra, Ferrara, Coesner, Payne & Connet, 2004). As NICU survivors enter early intervention services and kindergarten, the need for school health services increases (Clement, Barfield, Ayadi & Wilber, 2007). The Cedar Rapids vs, Garret Supreme Court decision of 1999 clarified the extent to which school districts are required to provide school nursing services for medically fragile children.
- National data sources are lacking in school health. School health outcome data is orphaned – it is not comprehensively measured in national health data sets nor national education data sets, despite the fact the electronic school health office records have been adopted by more than 50% of school nurses in several states, including 100% of the school nurses in Delaware. Comprehensive national data must be collected to measure the intensity of school health services and the impact of student health. The United States can state with certainty how many employees have died at work, but the US does not monitor student deaths, injuries, 911 calls, nor positive health outcomes of school nursing services. Support for adoption of electronic student health records along with the incorporation of school health data in national data sets will facilitate investment in school nursing services and the evaluation of the impact of those services on chronic disease management, injury and illness prevention, immunization levels, State Children’s Health Insurance Program enrollment and connecting students and families with medical homes.
- Attendance in the early grades is correlated with school achievement and dropout. School nurses keep children in school where they learn and prevent parents from missing work unnecessarily. School nurses are significantly less likely to dismiss a student than an unlicensed counterpart (Pennington & Delaney, 2008), in one study 57% less likely (Wyman, 2005).
- School nurses are a low cost investment in children’s health and every child deserves a school nurse.
The Healthy People 2020 Objectives Are Online for Public Comment
Click here to view objectives and learn about the upcoming public meetings.
posted to the NASN Weekly Digest 10/23/09
Registration Open for Healthy People 2020 Public Meetings
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services will conduct public meetings in Kansas City (Kansas), Philadelphia (Pennsylvania), and Seattle (Washington) on draft objectives for Healthy People 2020 in October and November 2009. Healthy People 2020 will transform the Nation’s thinking about health, health-enhancing behaviors, and strategies for disease prevention and health promotion. Meeting participants will be among the first to review and comment on the newly developed draft Healthy People 2020 objectives and topic areas. More information and free registration is available by clicking here. NASN will assist members with talking points for the public meetings. Please e-mail Mary Louise Embrey, Director of Government Affairs, at membrey@nasn.org if you register to participate.
posted to the NASN Weekly Digest 08/28/09
The Healthy People Consortium Reinvigorated
The Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has reinvigorated the consortium, which was originally established in 1988 as part of the first Healthy People process. NASN has joined the consortium in an effort to maintain vital networking and communication with regard to the creation of the Nation's Healthy People 2020's goals and objectives.
For more information on Healthy People, visit: http://www.healthypeople.gov/
posted to the NASN Weekly Digest 11/14/08
NASN's Director of Government Affairs participates in Stakeholders Meeting
Mary Louise Embrey, Director of Government Affairs, participated in the Healthy People 2020 Stakeholders Meeting held at the National Institutes of Health. It was the last of the six public regional meetings designed to obtain non-governmental perspective on the Nation’s health needs. NASN members were represented and acknowledged at all six of these meetings which are an essential part of the creation of Healthy People 2020. NASN’s involvement will continue throughout the entire process of framework development.
Read NASN’s most recent written statement.
posted to this site 05/30/08