MASNRN Fall 2017 Newsletter

Date posted: September 13, 2017

We hope you enjoyed some well deserved down time over the summer months!  Here are a few news items to read as we gear up for an exciting school year!

Congratulations!

Congratulations to our own Laurette Hughes who successfully defended her dissertation entitled “Attitudes and Practices of School Nurses and Pediatric Primary Care Providers toward Collaboration around Childhood Obesity” this spring at Boston College. She then presented a poster on the same topic at the National Association of School Nurses annual conference in San Diego, CA.

M. Laurette Hughes at Boston College Connell School of Nursing

Nice work, Dr. Hughes! We look forward to hearing more of her exciting work with children. See the abstract of her dissertation below.

Hughes, Mary Laurette. (2017). Attitudes and Practices of School Nurses and Pediatric Primary Care Providers toward Collaboration around Childhood Obesity. PhD Dissertation, Boston College, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/2345/bc-ir:107301

Background: Addressing childhood obesity requires a multidisciplinary approach. School based BMI screening and referral provided an opportunity for school nurses (SNs) and pediatric primary care physicians to collaborate. Understanding the capacity to collaborate, as well as the barriers and benefits, help to support interprofessional care.

Purpose: The purpose of this investigation was to determine SNs’ and pediatric physicians’ attitudes toward collaboration as well as the presence of successful collaboration proposed in the Four Dimension of Collaboration Model (FDCM).

Conclusions: Collaboration around childhood obesity is a unique struggle due to its multifaceted nature. School nurses and physicians showed positive attitudes toward collaboration, however, their capacity to act was limited. School nurses and pediatric physicians recognized the value of interprofessional collaboration recommending improvements to the current system.

Be sure to read the full abstract of this meaningful work at: http://dlib.bc.edu/islandora/object/bc-ir:107301

 

Get Involved

Pilot Study: HPV Vaccination Rates for Grade 7 Students

Thanks to volunteer participants for a study examining HPV immunization rates among middle school students. The study is scheduled to get underway beginning September 2017. Watch the MASNRN website and/or check your email for additional details about specific data collection needs.

If you are able to gather this vaccination data and are interested in participating, please email your name, school and interest to info@masnrn.org

Please consider getting involved in this important endeavor!

Other News

Judith Aubin, School Nurse Leader of North Attleboro School District has retired – well, almost.

After many dedicated years, Judy stepped down from her post at the end of the 2016-17 school year, but first she attended the National Association of School Nurses conference in San Diego, June 30-July 3, 2017. And, before leaving the North Attleboro School District, Judy brought the word of MASNRN’s latest pilot study HPV Vaccination Rates for Students in Grade 7  to the school nurses, making sure that North Attleboro is represented in this pilot study.

Judy Aubin addresses school nurses at MSNO Conference

Evidence to Outcomes: Using Software to Produce Statewide Surveillance Reports from Districts’ Electronic Health Records presented by Mary Jane O’Brien of Boston Public Schools & MASNRN and Terri Hamlin of PSNI (Professional Software for Nurses – SNAP) at the National Association of School Nurses 2017 Conference in San Diego.

The presentation reviewed how a surveillance system was set up for a school district without adding extra burden to the school nurse. The pilot program has been conducted in Boston Public Schools in conjunction with the Boston Public Health Commission and Massachusetts Department of Public Health, examining asthma care coordination. The pilot program was funded through the Prevention Wellness Trust Fund, a grant process created from the Health Care Reform bill. The goal was to create a surveillance system to provide information about students with asthma using the Report Generator; in much the same way SNAP creates the monthly data reports for the Essential School Health Services program. The results included increased communication between the school nurse and clinic/PCP/community sites and other positive activities. Stay tuned for full results!

 

 

Welcome Back to School!

Watch for our Fall Events and Opportunities!