The current paper presents observations about the healthcare system in North Bergen High School, which are mostly based on the interview with the school nurse. The school is a part of the North Bergen School District and enrolls about 2500 students. The discussion of school healthcare includes four main points. First, a general description of the healthcare system identifies the prevention types and the targets of the service. After that, the paper examines the role of nurses and significant issues in the school’s settings. Finally, the school healthcare system is analyzed in the general context. The investigation finds that the school healthcare system relies mostly on nurses, while the number of staff is probably not sufficient.
The school mostly covers all three primary levels of healthcare. There are classes aimed at healthcare education, where the teacher and medical staff give lectures about immunization, adequate nutrition, and basic treatment principles. Moreover, the school supplies the student with nutritionally balanced food and safe drinking water. However, the secondary and tertiary levels are also partly considered in the school. For example, there is a psychological service for the students who need psychotherapy because of such problems an emotional burnout. If a student has a physical or mental trauma, the school also tries to help with rehabilitation in the studying settings. Therefore, the main school medical activity aims at preventing possible diseases but also includes treating psychological issues.
The school nurse has many management and practical tasks such as planning the healthcare education, screening the overall school setting and mood, identifying and helping those students who need a medical service. The medical staff should be able to work with a big amount of data because they should be aware of each student’s health condition. As for required education, the nurse must graduate from an approved nursing program at the associate’s, baccalaureate, or diploma level. They also need certification and at least three years of nursing experience. Overall, nursing in the school requires medical education in nursing, along with substantial experience in healthcare.
However, the nurses have to face several problems in their job. As it was mentioned above, they experience heavy workloads because they must provide sufficient service for all the students and teachers with various cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds, not to mention that nurses have to undergo a certification renewing. When health emergencies happen, it becomes hardly feasible to maintain adequate medical help. Therefore, the school probably needs to hire more medical staff in order to facilitate healthcare quality.
The observation has given a unique experience of learning about the background of the school healthcare. Nursing is a highly responsible position, and the staff has to deal with several cases daily. It was surprising to find out that nurses must possess a significant level of cross-cultural awareness because the students came from different backgrounds, and an unexpectable treatment can cause organizational and studying issues. Nowadays, several ethical principles have been introduced to address this issue (Savage, 2017). To sum up, a sufficient school medical service must take into account the cultural and socioeconomic diversity of the society.
To conclude, North Bergen High School nurses provide full primary healthcare, along with partly covering the secondary and tertiary levels. The medical staff is responsible for over 2000 students with different cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds. The students’ health is an essential premise for successful studying, and that is why the medical staff should get all the necessary resources. It is clear that the school healthcare system is quite effective, but it would probably benefit if the medical team gets more employees.
Reference
Savage, T. A. (2017). Ethical issues in school nursing. OJIN: The Online Journal of Issues in Nursing, 22(3).