I have been at the meeting of the community agency in Palatine, IL, which is known as Community Consolidated School District 15. It is one of the largest elementary districts in the state, and it consists of more than 30 square miles. As it can be understood from the name, the agency is concentrated on the schools. In this way, it has several elementary and junior high schools as well as the alternative public day and preschool. The history of this community agency goes back to 1946, which proves that it manages its work successfully.
The mission of the agency is to “produce world-class learners by building a connected learning community” (About School District 15, 2015, para. 6). So it is not surprising that the main focus of the meeting of the District 15 was the education of its clients. The meeting included the reports aimed to show how the previously adopted projects were managed and what the results of their work are. The programs beneficial for educational service personnel and those connected with finances gained much attention.
As I have understood from the meeting, the population of the District 15 is rather diverse. It includes the clients from seven communities (“Palatine, Rolling Meadows, Hoffman Estates, Inverness, South Barrington, Arlington Heights, and Schaumburg”) (About School District 15, 2015, para. 1), who differ in their origin and beliefs. They mostly include the workers of the educational system, students, and their families.
The agency does its best for educators and students to be well qualified and meet (or even excel) the expectations of the community. It makes sure that the schools participate in various activities, which allow the teachers, students and parents to work as a team. It is crucial that the work the agency does contributes to the health of the community. The majority of the reports included the information about the health of the community in financial perspective and in general. Different funds, expected costs and taxes. It was claimed that the educational programs provided the community members with the information about Mental Health Code and sexual health, etc.
The nurses are already involved in the life of the community, and their role is underlined. As the agency focuses on the educational settings, they claimed the school nurses to be responsible for making the clients aware of the crucial health information. Moreover, they are to make sure that the participants of different physical activities (including the mile-long run discussed at the beginning of the meeting) are in a good condition and can take part in them.
I believe that the nurses can play an immense role in the agency as they can monitor the health of the clients. In this way, the nurses can make up a plan of activities needed to enhance the knowledge of the community and improve their health outcomes. They can also help to identify the best way of costs and funds distribution in the sphere of health and life safety. Nurses can offer the plans for improvement of the educational environment.
I believe this meeting to be a great experience, which allowed me to see the connection between the work of the community agency and healthcare at different levels. I realized that the nurses can help their communities to be healthy not only by providing them with the services in the hospitals and healthcare entities and that the communities consider different aspects of life to benefit their clients.
References
About School District 15. (2015). Web.