Information and Influence in School Nursing

School nurses understand the value of the work we do, but many others do not. Current MN laws and infrastructure make it very difficult to tell the story of school health services and the benefits to student health. Culminating in 2023, a group of individuals from the Minnesota Department of Health, the Minnesota Department of Education, SNOM, and Dakota County Public Health have worked on a strategic plan for collecting and reporting information related to student health and school health services. The strategic plan calls for a phased approach. Phase One starts with current capacity and what can be implemented immediately. Phase Two expands on what could be implemented with increased capacity, resource and support for Minnesota-specific measures.

Mission

The State of Minnesota has policy, infrastructure, and systems, to collect, analyze, and report on the health status of students, their health needs, and the school health services to meet those needs.

Vision

There is meaningful information available about student health and school health services to inform decision making at all levels to improve health and educational equity so that all Minnesota students thrive.

SNOM is encouraging all Minnesota schools and school districts to participate in NASN’s Every Student Counts! with a few limited data points in 2024-2025. By aligning with NASN’s effort, we can take advantage of their clear definitions for each data point.

During the 2023-2024 school year, we asked schools and districts to enter information directly into NASN’s data platform. Feedback about that experience prompted us to try a different reporting method for the current school year. This year, we are asking all districts (including charter schools and non-public schools) to submit data directly to SNOM using a Google Form. The data coordinators will check the data and circle back with districts if needed to clarify data points. Data coordinators will aggregate the data submitted and will enter the data into the NASN data platform. We hope this will make data submission easier for participants, reduce technical barriers, and increase the integrity of the data submitted.

These are the data points for the 2024-2025 school year.

1.      Official student enrollment numbers as of Oct. 1^st

2.      Health staff positions either by FTE or by hours per week (choose whichever one is easiest for your school/district)

3.      Number of students with Type 1 Diabetes, Type 2 Diabetes, Asthma, Seizure disorder, and Life-threatening allergies (count those with confirmed diagnosis, and those known to have the conditions but without confirmed diagnosis)

The purpose of using data sets is for ALL school nurses to collect data in the same way - so there is uniformity, and information can be compared. Following the definitions of each data set is CRITICAL for this to be successful. The data set does not include everything a school nurse does; it is a beginning point and additional data points are being considered. We are starting small and hoping to build capacity.

Here is a Every Student Counts! worksheet that can be printed and used to collect the 2024- 2025 MN data points on paper (includes definitions on second page).

Here is an Excel version of the worksheet of 2024-2025 MN data points that can be used to collect the same data points electronically.

Here is an FAQ about the 2024-2025 Minnesota data points.

Here is an FAQ from NASN about Every Student Counts! which includes important information about data privacy considerations. Please note that Minnesota is not collecting all of the data points included in the NASN Every Student Counts! data set so not everything in the FAQ will be relevant.