May 21, 2018

Dear Colleagues,

It was truly a pleasure and honor to be present at last Thursday’s  ESHS Promising Practices Meeting in Marlboro!  Thank you to the many wonderful nurses who provided outstanding presentations on the outcomes of their district’s Innovative Care Coordination projects and the remarkable poster presentations on a wide variety of topics relevant to school nursing practice! It was also a day for celebrations of transitions, graduations and retirements!  Thank you to all who participated! You inspire me with your dedication and innovation to school nursing!

Tragedy also struck one of our schools over the weekend when four young men were killed and another seriously injured in a car crash.  Our thoughts and prayers go out to their families and friends as they deal with this difficult and tragic loss.  Please keep all of our colleagues in Stoughton in your thoughts as they deal with the aftermath of feelings and emotions among members of their school community. Many surrounding districts are donating food and water and other supplies to assist the school during this time.  They are also seeking assistance from school nurses and counselors from surrounding towns to provide support to their students and staff during the next few weeks.  They are also requesting that any school nurse who can provide nursing coverage or coverage assistance so that  Stoughton School Nurses can attend funeral services to please contact Sally Borges, Nursing Director for the Stoughton Public Schools at  s_borges@stoughtonschools.org. Applications are being expedited and use of Cori’s from surrounding districts will be utilized; this would be volunteer. Any assistance is appreciated at this time.

Once again we hear of another mass shooting in a school.  In the incidents analyzed, attackers fell all along the social spectrum, from popular students to “loners,” according to a Secret Service report. The agency didn’t find common demographic threads, but it did note some psychological trends among attackers: many “felt bullied, persecuted, or injured by others prior to the attack,” many had a history of suicide attempts or feelings of depression or desperation, and most had no history of criminal behavior. Family members and classmates often suggest it was an unexpected, impulsive act, saying things like “He just snapped.” But psychologists and school safety experts say that’s rarely the case. One of the most important ways to keep schools safe is to create a consistent, reliable system for reporting and responding to concerns about students’ intentions, they say. “I think this idea of ‘just snapped’ really undermines the importance of ongoing risk management and assessment,” Anders Goranson, a psychologist and threat-assessment specialist. People need to feel empowered to share information or conversations that “made the hair stand up on the back of their neck,” he said.  School nurses and other school health personnel need to be aware of students who feel rejected, bullied and excluded and provide the counseling and support our students need.

Thank you for all you do…in joyous times and sorrowful times!
Mary Ann and Janet

“We should take as a maxim never to be surprised at current difficulties, no more than at a passing breeze, because with a little patience we shall see them disappear. Time changes everything.” — St. Vincent de Paul

SCHOOL NURSES IN THE NEWS!!

Carla Dumas, Julie Hendley,  and Tina Hill and Rosemary Sullender all from the Nashoba Regional School District have all recently passed their National Certification in School Nursing exam!  Congratulations to our most recent NCSNs!!

I’m not sure if this counts or not, but as the blood drive coordinator I was quoted in the news.

Tara Mitchell, the School Nurse Leader at the Alma del Mar Charter School is also mentioned for her work in organizing a recent blood drive at her school! http://www.southcoasttoday.com/news/20180503/blood-drive-set-for-may-10-at-alma-del-mar-charter-school

The local Stow Independent newspaper featured a safety and civic engagement assembly with high school students in Bolton that Lesa Breault-Gulbicki, Coordinator of Health and Wellness for Nashoba Regional School District coordinated with local representatives and law enforcement.

Congratulation to Brockton Public School Nurse, Diane Sloane The Gilmore Elementary Kindergarten students in Brockton Public Schools planted seeds and are watching their lettuce grow in the Indoor Tower garden.  Four more tower gardens are placed in the fifth grade Gilmore classrooms to support their STEM initiatives and promote healthy organic eating!  A grant was written by Diane and she received a  Wal-Mart Gift of  $5000 to make this possible for the students.  The Children built the gardens, planted the seeds, and are able  to eat the produce! (There are media releases for the students in the photo.)

 Judy Dagnese from Milford Public Schools sent along how she promoted National School Nurse’s Day in Milford!  The photo below was posted on the district’s Twitter and Facebook page. The nurses all wore these shirts on “Kindness Wednesday” during our Wellness Week in memory of one of our nurse’s daughter, Jackie Gray,  who was killed in car crash last year.  They also dedicated a purple Buddy Bench in her memory – purple was Jackie’s favorite color.

YEAR END CONCUSSION REPORTS:

The MDPH Division of Injury and Violence Prevention Concussion program has sent the electronic year end concussion report for 2017-2018 to school principals, school nurses and athletic directors to be completed and filed with MDPH.  These are due by August 31, 2018.

ACCEPTING, VERIFYING, TRANSCRIBING AND IMPLEMENTING MEDICATION ORDERS:

This memo (link below) further clarifies changes made to the Advisory Ruling revision (April 2018) that was recently distributed from the Board of Registration in Nursing (BORN).  It may be helpful in understanding the changes: https://www.mass.gov/files/documents/2018/04/12/verify%20orders%20memo%20to%20public%204-18.pdf   Please take a moment to review the entire advisory ruling AR 9324: Accepting, Verifying, Transcribing and Implementing Medication Orders at:

https://www.mass.gov/lists/advisory-rulings-board-of-registration-in-nursing

SBIRT SPRING NEWSLETTER:

The 2018 Spring SBIRT Newsletter is attached

13 REASONS WHY, PART II:

The sequel to 13 Reasons Why (13 RW) will be released by Netflix this Friday, May 18. There was a lot of concern in the suicide prevention community about the original release of 13RW. The good news is that the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP) worked with Netflix on the sequel. The Suicide Prevention Resource Center has put together a list of resources to help parents and school staff talk with students about “13 Reasons Why.” For those who may decide to watch 13RW Season 1 before the sequel, here is a resource guide that was developed by a team of experts.  Also, this article presents a good summary of the concerns around this series along with a lot of good information.

DNP RESEARCH PROJECT NEEDS SURVEY PARTICIPANTS: 

Roselaine C  Koech, a school nurse in Boston Public Schools is also a DNP student at Regis College. She is exploring the self-management and readiness skills for adolescents with chronic illness in urban schools.  She is using a self-reporting survey to explore to what extent school nurses promote self-management competency skills for students with chronic illness.  The survey has 50 questions and takes 10-15 minutes to complete.  She is inviting all school nurses to participate. The purpose of this study is to explore to what extent school nurses promote self-management readiness skills for adolescents with chronic illness in urban schools. Later in the study, the researcher will introduce a tool to help prepare high school students with chronic illness for independence as they are transitioning toward adulthood.   You were selected to be in this study because you are a registered nurse who is employed full time as a school nurse including school nurse leaders in an urban school district in a Northeastern region of the United States and you care for students with chronic illness in grade levels K-8 (for students in grades 7 and 8 grades), middle, and high school. You are not eligible to participate if you are in grade level K-5 (K-5 students are very young, we do care coordination with parents and clinicians), substitute school nurses, a provisional, or per-diem school nurse, and if you had taken part in the pilot test of the survey questions for this study.  Please ask any questions you may have before you agree to be in the study. Roselaine can be contacted directly at: rchar380@regiscollege.edu

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/AYACDM2018

OPPORTUNITY FOR SCHOOL SBIRT EVALUATION:

A research team at Boston Children’s Hospital, led by Drs. Sharon Levy and Elissa Weitzman, is requesting your participation in the study “Evaluation of SBIRT in MA Public Schools” to help evaluate the impact of school SBIRT on health and behavior outcomes among adolescents. The study enrollment has extended to Fall 2018 which provides a new opportunity to participate in this work. To prepare for survey administration at the start of the 2018-2019 school year, the team is engaging schools now to set plans in place before the end of this school year.  This project aims to evaluate the impact of school SBIRT on health and behavior outcomes among adolescents in MA public schools by comparing students who will receive SBIRT screening and those who will not be screened. Participation in the evaluation involves administering a 15-minute anonymous electronic survey to students two times, 3 months apart. Your school is eligible to participate even if you are still scheduling your SBIRT dates for next year. To thank you for your participation we can provide a $250 donation to the school and provide you with your own school data upon request. If you would like to learn more about participating in this study, please contact:  BCH Research Coordinator, Eliza Nelson ; e-mail: eliza.nelson@childrens.harvard.edu ; phone: 617-919-1366  Attached is an flyer with more information.

REGIONAL CONSULTANT CONTACT INFORMATION:

Mary Ann Gapinski, MSN, RN, NCSN
Director of School Health Services/ School SBIRT Coordinator
MA Department of Public Health
250 Washington Street – 5^th Floor
Boston, MA  02108
mary.gapinski@state.ma.us

Website: http://www.mass.gov/eohhs/gov/departments/dph/programs/community-health/primarycare-healthaccess/school-health/

SBIRT information:  www.masbirt.org/schools