Frequently Asked Questions
School nurses strengthen and facilitate the educational process by improving and protecting the health status of children and staff, and by identifying health-related barriers to the learning process and working to remove or modify those barriers. With the help of other health professionals, school nurses encourage preventive services to enable students to take proactive measures to stay healthy and get more out of school. As a general rule, school nurses have responsibility for/to:
- Function as a collaborative member of the school staff in all aspects of the school health plan
- Total health and developmental assessment of students
- Medication in schools
- Health counseling
- Assist in the appropriate placement of students with exceptional needs, and development of IEPs
- Assist students, parents, and teachers to adapt to a student’s chronic health problem (diabetes, asthma, epilepsy, cancer, etc…)
- Assurance of a well-nourished school population
- Prevention and control of communicable diseases
- Emergency care
- Health instruction
- Serve as School Health Liaison to community agencies and medical care facilities
- Evaluate and continuously improve the school nursing services
Today there are more than 300 school nurses serving students and staff across the state, ensuring they have the tools necessary to lead healthy lifestyles.
The school nurse plays a pivotal role in emergency and crisis planning and response. In emergency/crisis response, it will be the school nurse who will provide first aid, provide information to school officials and emergency personnel, establish triage as needed, and coordinate medical evacuation if necessary. The school nurse’s role in preparedness is just a important, as good planning will facilitate a rapid, coordinated, effective response. The Office of Healthy Schools recommends that school nurses participate in the School Safety Administrator training offered through the Office of Safe & Orderly Schools’ Division of School Safety. In addition, the following resources are available:
What are the requirements to be a school nurse?
“School Nurse Sample Job Description”
Are there any vacancies for school nurses?
For more information visit job vacancies
What are the responsibilities of the EPSDT nurse?
The Early Periodic Screening Diagnosis and Treatment (EPSDT) program provides preventive and comprehensive health services for Medicaid-eligible children and youth up to age 21. EPSDT screening services must include the following: comprehensive health and developmental history, comprehensive physical examination, appropriate immunizations, laboratory tests, lead toxicity screening, adolescent counseling, health education, vision services, and hearing services. In addition, the EPSDT School Nurse is tasked with identifying eligible children, getting parental consent forms signed and returned, maintaining a periodicity schedule, scheduling appointments, working with and educating parents and other school personnel, working with provided computer software to file for reimbursement from Medicaid for approved screenings, and reconciling receipt of funds.
How do health services support academic achievement?
According to the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, “research has shown that school health programs can effectively reduce the prevalence of health risk behaviors among young people and can also have a positive impact on students’ academic performance.” Health services, like those available through a school nurse or EPSDT nurse can help to reduce behavior problems, reduce absenteeism, and improve academic performance.
Who can administer medication at the local school site?
The Board of Nursing has determined that medication administration is a component of school nursing practice, but it is not mandatory that the school nurse assume responsibility for medication administration in the school setting.
Does a school need to have an established clinic for an EPSDT nurse?
If grant funding is available, it generally allows an amount to add or renovate a school clinic including the purchase of all equipment and supplies. The Division of Medicaid specifies the equipment and supplies that must be available in all clinics that offer EPSDT screening services. Medicaid issues a provider number to each site, and an onsite clinic inspection must be conducted by an EPSDT Review Nurse from the Maternal Child Health Bureau prior to EPSDT screenings and submission of Medicaid claims for screening services.
Is there an EPSDT School Nurse in my school district?
EPSDT Map
Is there a school nurse in my school district?
Link to directory of nurses
How do I found out more about the Youth Risk Behavior Survey?
Contact Susan Andrews at 601-359-1737 or
visit the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Should we have school employees get TB skin tests yearly, especially food service workers?
The Mississippi Department of Health, Office of Communicable Diseases has sited the recommendations for Targeted Tuberculin Testing from the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR), June 2000 issue published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as follows:
"Screening of low-risk persons and testing for administrative purposes (e.g., certification of school teachers) should be replaced by targeted testing. "
Targeted testing focuses on persons or groups at high risk for TB. Unless the school system is in an area of possible TB clusters or high incidence of TB, annual TB testing is not recommended. TB skin testing is discouraged for those at low risk for developing TB disease. This also applies to food service personnel. |
