Challenging Candidates To Think About Health Care Differently

The Partnership to Fight Chronic Disease is an organization created to challenge the candidates for president to think about the cost of chronic disease as 

they present their plans to address the rising health care costs. Chronic disease is the number 1 driver of healthcare spending and the leading cause of death and disability. 86% of health care spending is attributed to chronic disease. Today, people receive the recommended care less than 60% of the time. If you want to be involved in this challenge, 

CLICK HERE  for more information.

Accomplishments of NHSNA in the past two years:

• Hosted the  New England School Nurse Conference, May 2015 in Portsmouth NH
  
• Increased membership from 167 to 238 
• Updated website and membership is online
• Lobbied to get the School Nurse Consultant position re-instated as of January, 2016.
• Positive relationship and collaboration with Virginia Barry, Commissioner of NHDOE
• Upgraded training for new school nurses to a three-day workshop
• Board retreats to work on a five year plan, mission and vision statements.
• Advocacy: Presented to the NH Superintendents and Principals Association of the Role of the School Nurse
• Working with the NHDOE on credentialing NH School Nurses
• Testified at legislative hearings on glucagon, epinephrine and bronchodialtors bills.  Legislators are now consulting regularly to get NHSNA input on new legislation.
• NASN President Beth Mattey visited and spoke at our fall dinner meeting
• NHSNA Position Statement on Naloxone was authored  by committee members across the state

Submitted By Diana Zoltko, BSN, RN, NCSN

At one time or another in your career as a school nurse, I would be willing to wager that you have felt or been told that your specialty is “less than” when compared to other areas of nursing. I have been asked by nursing colleagues who do not work in a school “ But what do you do all day? You don’t even use any of your hard earned skills!” As any school nurse will attest, the opposite is actually true. We must have sharp assessment and triage skills as we are often singular in our positions. Even if you have more than one nurse in your office, we are autonomous in our care. Non-school nurses, and sometimes administrators, truly do not understand the conflicts that exist between healthcare and education. We are experts in finding the continued balance between these two worlds. School nursing is focused on the health and well-being of our families and the staff but primarily, we provide ongoing health management of our students to optimize time spent in the classroom.

Certification is important in any specialty. But certification in school nursing “represents a national standard of rigorous preparation, knowledge, and practice” (NBCSN, 2015). To be a nationally certified school nurse provides a “mark of distinction” among our profession and within our specialty. We have 38 certified school nurses in the state of New Hampshire; this number represents just 1% of the total school nurses in New Hampshire (NBCSN, 2015).

We do not have “Magnet Schools” in our specialty nor do we do have that overarching stamp of excellence to lend a hand to our cause. Certification is the closest comparable thing that we have at this time. Early adopters of the voluntary professional certification understand

the importance of raising the standards and expectations for future school nurses. How can we expect administration to understand the value of a full-time baccalaureate prepared, nationally certified nurse if we do not put value in it ourselves as nurses? How can we equalize contract issues and raise our pay to match our constituents in the hospital setting if we do not value ourselves?

The process for certification is simple. The exam is offered three times a year: Spring, Summer and Fall. Each date has an application deadline one month prior to the testing window opening. The spring deadline has passed but June 11, 2016 and October 8, 2016 are the next two options available. Eligibility requirements include: current licensure as a baccalaureate prepared registered nurse (must be granted from an accredited program), clinical practice minimum of 1,000 hours during the past three years, and completed and filed the application for certification examination for school nurses, including payment of the required fee of $350.00. The certification is valid for a period of five years at which time the candidate must retake and

pass the exam or meet continuing education requirements to keep the certification.  Once this process is complete, you will receive an email with your Authorization To Test. This email will provide information regarding the testing schedule, date, and location for your testing window. The exam consists of a maximum of 200 multiple choice questions with a total testing time of four hours. Five areas of focused content are weighted in approximately the following manner:

a. Health Appraisal 27%

b. Health Problems and Nursing Management 28%

c. Health Promotion/Disease Prevention 20%

d. Special Health Issues 13%

e. Professional Issues 12%

Testing materials provide rigorous examples of exam questions. Multiple study resources are available from the National Board for Certification of School Nurses website at www.nbcsn.org and from the National Association of School Nurse website at www.nasn.org .

NBCSN has created a “Handbook for Candidates” that has additional information regarding the examination process.

Certification in school nursing is a personal choice that can have huge ramifications for our profession and specialty. Now is the time to aim high and create an environment of excellence for ourselves and future school nurses joining the ranks. The NHSNA’s position

(2015) is that it is time to ensure that all children are receiving the highest level of health care that will allow them to reach their full educational potential.

National Board for Certification of School Nurses, Inc. (2015). Number of NCSN’s by state.  Retrieved February 2, 2016 

New Hampshire School Nurses’ Association. (2015). 

NH school nurse certification. Retrieved February 2, 2016