YORK COUNTY  — The essential role played by school nurses in keeping students healthy and ready to learn is evident in a new report released last month by the Maine Department of Education.

The School Health Annual Report summary for 2017-2018  combines required reporting for Maine and optional data collected as part of the national initiative with the National Association of School Nurses, Every Student Counts™ program. The report provides data to help school districts, state and national education departments create policies that promote best health practices in schools and determine adequate school nurse staffing levels.

This latest report was put together from individual submissions from more than 97 percent of Maine public, private schools and charter schools, a practice that will change for the 2018-2019 report. New reporting will come from each school district instead of individual schools.

“The only change in the way the department is collecting this data is that it is being collected at the district level instead of the school level,” said Emily Poland, School Nurse Consultant and Team Leader for Coordinated School Health for the Maine Department of Education. “This will promote more local ownership of the data. Someone at the district level will need to collect from all schools and submit as one report. This process will inform the district office of what is happening in health services throughout their school populations.”

Poland said that some of the data collected is optional as part of a national initiative with the National Association of School Nurses.

“Having this data at both the state and national level can improve school nursing practice and the health outcomes of our students,” she said.

The new report highlights the benefits of having school nurses on site for Maine school districts.

As an example, 91.06 percent of students seen for an illness by a school registered nurse were able to return to class, with 8.87 sent home and 0.07 percent taken to the hospital. Of students seen by a school Licensed Practical Nurse, 94.43 were returned to class, with 5.54 percent sent home and 0.03 percent going to the hospital for treatment. For students seen by a school health aide, 85.56 percent were sent back to class, with 14.41 sent home and 0.03 percent receiving emergency medical attention.

According to Poland, the 2017-2018 summary, showed there were 41 reports of epinephrine being administered in Maine schools for suspected anaphylaxis, a severe, potentially life-threatening allergic reaction.

“It is not mandatory for schools to stock epinephrine,” she said. “In Title 20-A§6305, there is a process for stocking epinephrine and training for unlicensed staff to administer epinephrine to a student in the school setting experiencing what appears to be anaphylaxis.”

Epinephrine injection are used along with emergency medical treatment to treat life-threatening allergic reactions caused by insect bites or stings, food, medications, latex, and other causes. Epinephrine is in a class of medications that work by relaxing the muscles in the airways and tightening the blood vessels.

Among students seen by school nurses in Maine for suspected anaphylaxis during the reporting period, 29 percent of those were for a peanut allergy and 25 percent suffered from a previously undiagnosed life threatening allergy.

“This determination was made by the school nurse upon completion of the report. If a student had a diagnosed allergy with an emergency health plan that would be considered a “known allergy,” Poland said. “If there was no school documentation of an allergy and epinephrine was given, that would be considered “unknown allergy.”

Information contained in the latest report also revealed that some 19,095 out of 179,202 students screened by school nurses in the past year were reported to have a chronic condition.

Poland said that although chronic conditions are not a mandatory reporting data point for Maine schools, it has been asked of schools occasionally for different initiatives, but not consistently.

“In 2016-2017, 18,319 students out of 155,759 were reported to have a chronic condition, 11.7 percent,” Poland said. “This past year, it came out to 11.1 percent.”

Statewide, school nurses in Maine found 13,354 students suffered from chronic asthma and 3,909 had life-threatening allergies. Some 1,147 students had a chronic seizure disorder, with 598 suffering from Type 1 Diabetes and 87 had Type 2 Diabetes.

School nurse screenings also are important to detecting and preventing potential health problems for students.

In the 2017-2018 report, 80,627 students in Maine received a vision screening with 7 percent being referred for further evaluation. A total of 60,376 students received a hearing screening and 2 percent were referred for further evaluation.

For more information about the School Health Annual Report or Every Student Counts™, call 624-6688, or visit the Every Student Counts™ Website.

— Executive Editor Ed Pierce can be reached at 282-1535 or by email at editor@journaltribune.com

Copy the Story Link

Comments are not available on this story.