The value of a school nurse in increasing the good health of children is tremendous. School nurses are gardeners of health, focusing primarily on prevention and maintenance. As a school contact from everything from dispensing a child’s medicine to physical therapy exercises, a nurse’s role in the school is critical to the goal of education.

"One of the things that we found as we began to put this partnership together," said Rosalind, "was that for an awful lot of our kids...--the only medical person that they were seeing was a school nurse...Something would happen on Saturday at home and the mother would say, ‘Wait ‘til you go to school on Monday and you can see the school nurse about it.’ And so, that was another reason we were finding that it was really important to put this model together."

The model uses school nurses, health aides, and community and school support to provide not just regular screenings, but more comprehensive health programming and resources. "...[The school nurse] is able to really get to know families, and make home visits, do education, make medical referrals, follow back up with parents to see that they in fact got in to see a physician," said Rosalind. SHP Program nurses now review a survey every new family in the school completes to see if students have a regular physician. The survey explores family needs as they relate to health care, and becomes a basis the nurse can use to refer the family to services, often doing preliminary calls to clinic and doctors’ offices first, to make sure the match is right.

"Prior to the SHP Program in these schools, we were seeing kids that were staying out of school thirteen, fourteen days, because of head lice...It was just an on-going problem," Rosalind described just one example on a health issue improved through the partnership, "Now we can really have the nurse doing some education. We have actually purchased video materials, where the nurse can meet with the parent and show the parent what needs to be done to take care of it...We’ve had our school nurse actually go to the home and try and give the parent some support and some direction in how to deal with that issue."

Rosalind cites head lice as one of the biggest contributors to absenteeism, an issue directly linked to school nursing services. Problems like these and others might seem like little things, but they prohibit a child from attending school, missing the very first requirement of classroom learning -- being there.

A less obvious duty of a school nurse, Nurse Barb Ethier points out, is also simply being there -- all the time during the school day -- for kids who are simply feeling bad or may need some extra attention. Barb tells the story of a wheelchair bound boy from a big family who visits her office regularly for help with daily foot exercises he must perform and other assistance. Barb described the help she and her health aide give him light-heartedly: "Flex his foot one way, and then dorsal flex but actually, really -- and you can tell he loves it -- we’re just rubbing his feet...It’s just a little bit of nurturing. We do a lot of that, but it’s a big need that he has, and we know that."

Barb’s office is a clean, busy area down a small corridor from the school administration desk. One wall has a new counter and cupboard --installed with help from the partnership, and a washer and dryer sit next to it. As the bell for the end of reading period sounds, several children stream into the office for their medication and other needs, and almost it seems, just to catch up. One boy proudly shows her a spot on his face that the doctor "fixed" since he last saw her, and another holds up a drawing. On her desk is a computer, also a partnership benefit, where she can track immunization and other records, helping her to remind families when their child might be due for a vaccination. "I love my job," she said, "I know I give a lot to [the children], but boy, they really give a lot to me. I feel truly blessed to be here."