August is upon us, which means students are back in classrooms across our community. Here in Nashville, that means that the Metro Public Health Department's school health team is once again responding to the needs of students at Metro Nashville Public Schools. School Health services provide comprehensive nursing care to Nashville's students, ensuring educational engagement and success.
The school year started with about 100 nurses stationed at schools across Nashville. Our goal for several years has been to have at least one nurse in every school, a goal which we have made significant progress toward (Those who are interested or know someone who would be interested in becoming a school health nurse can do so at GovernmentJobs.com). Positioning a nurse at every school isn't just about meeting a goal, it's about improving the health and assuring the future of students in our schools.
In addition to services such as surveillance of flu-like illness, health and wellness education, immunization audits and identification of students with medical conditions, school nurses also provide onsite nursing care, and case management to increase access to providers. Skilled nursing services are provided to over 250 students, equaling over 800 daily procedures in schools. These skilled nursing services include, but are not limited to, diabetic care, tracheostomy care, ventilator, catheterization, and tube feedings. These are services and procedures that must be performed by an RN according to state law and the Tennessee Board of Nursing. School health nurses also provided more than 400 educations sessions on health promotion, illness prevention and more, sharing their vast knowledge of health and wellness with their students.
In the 2024-2025 academic year, school nurses completed over 130,500 scheduled visits, 150,000 unscheduled office visits, and maintained a 92% student return-to-class rate. They also developed 6,935 Emergency Care Plans (ECPs) for students with identified health conditions to ensure student safety during medical events. Between the 2021 and 2024 academic years, the school nurse program increased total office visits from 207,233 to 280,927 and increased the return to class rate from 85% to 92%.
Beyond the data, school health nurses leave a large imprint on their students because they are always willing to go above and beyond. The school health team is an valuable resource for the students in our community.
We wish all our students a successful and healthy school year.