Collaboration to Support Students with Chronic Health Conditions
Collaboration Background
It is estimated that one in four students in United States schools may have a chronic health condition (Jackson, Vann, Kotch, Pahel, & Lee, 2011; Van Cleave, Gortmaker, & Perrin, 2010). Approximately 6% of those students have multiple chronic conditions leading to challenges with treatment adherence, disease acceptance, lifestyle modification, care coordination, increased exposure to chronic condition risk factors, and difficulties transitioning to adult healthcare settings (Anderson, 2010; Rezaee & Pollock, 2015). Children with chronic conditions are at risk for high absentee rates, low student engagement, dropping-out of school, exposure to bullying, disruptive behaviors, poor grades, and below-average performance on standardized achievement tests (Forrest, Bevans, Riley, Crespo, & Louis, 2011; Bethell et al., 2012).
The school nurse is well positioned to support the health and academic success of students with chronic health conditions by providing direct care and facilitating the many practice components of care coordination (Bargeron et al., 2015; Brook et al., 2015; NASN 2015). School nurse advocacy helps students and families to access needed resources in support of academic achievement (CDC, 2017). School nurses are leaders who provide care coordination, health [...]