Identification of Workload Measurement Indicators for School Nursing Practice.

Many school districts rely on caseload or student to school nurse ratios that are not grounded in evidence-based research. There is a need for a comprehensive workload instrument to describe the work of school nurses that incorporates the complexities of the role and includes acuity, care processes, and social determinants of health. The purpose of this qualitative study was to identify workload activities from a previous Delphi study that can be empirically measured as items for a workload instrument.

Factors Related to School Nurse Workload.

Recognizing the need for a school nurse workload model based on more than the number of students in a caseload, the National Association of School Nurses issued recommendations related to measuring school nurse workload. Next, a workforce acuity task force (WATF) was charged with identifying the steps needed to further the recommendations. As a first step, the WATF focused on identifying existing literature and practices related to school nurse workload.

The use of change theory to facilitate the consolidation of two diverse Bachelors of Science in Nursing programs.

Background: Consolidation of resources, programs, and even universities are measures that university systems consider for economic reasons. The transformation and restructuring of two diverse nursing programs utilized an organizational change tool to guide the consolidation efforts.

Purpose: Insights on how to use an organizational change model and lessons learned are shared for higher education units that may face consolidation.

School Health Services for Children With Special Health Care Needs in California.

Children with special health care needs (CSHCN) are at risk for school failure when their health needs are not met. Current studies have identified a strong connection between school success and health. This study attempted to determine (a) how schools meet the direct service health needs of children and (b) who provides those services.

Development of an International School Nurse Asthma Care Coordination Model.

Aim: To identify and compare how school nurses in Reykjavik, Iceland and St. Paul, Minnesota coordinated care for youth with asthma (ages 10-18) and to develop an asthma school nurse care coordination model.

Background: Little is known about how school nurses coordinate care for youth with asthma in different countries.

The development and implementation of eSchoolCare: a novel health care support system for school nurses.

School-aged children with chronic conditions (CCC) are increasing in number and bring health needs into classrooms, with implications for learning. Changing technologies and complex care requirements for CCC have left school nurses, the primary health care professional in educational settings, seeking support and further training to provide quality care for CCC. This article describes the development and implementation of a Web-based program, eSchoolCare, designed to extend the expertise of professionals in an academic health care system to school nurses to improve CCC care.

The development and implementation of an interdisciplinary on-line academic course using a life course perspective.

The University of Wisconsin-Madison Pediatric Pulmonary Center (UW PPC) provides interdisciplinary leadership training for graduate students and postgraduate professionals. The training includes a three-credit on-line course entitled Interdisciplinary Care of Children with Special Health Care Needs. This paper describes the course, the content and organization of which was guided by the life course perspective (LCP).

The international school nurse asthma project: barriers related to asthma management in schools.

Aim: This article is a report of an international study of barriers to asthma care from the perspectives of school nurses in Reykjavik, Iceland and St. Paul, Minnesota, in the context of their schools, communities and countries.

Background: Globally, asthma affects the health and school performance of many adolescents.

Education and information for practicing school nurses: which technology-supported resources meet their needs?

School nurses care for children with a variety of health-related conditions and they need information about managing these conditions, which is accessible, current, and useful. The goal of this literature review was to gather and synthesize information on technology-supported resources and to determine which met the educational needs of school nurses. Successful online educational programs were interactive and self-directed.

Strengthening families program (10-14): effects on the family environment.

This study examined whether parent-youth dyads participating in the Strengthening Families Program 10-14 (SFP 10-14) would demonstrate greater postprogram family cohesion, communication, involvement, and supervision and if youth would report less alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs involvement in contrast to a comparison group. From 16 randomly selected schools, we recruited 167 parent-youth dyads: 86 from intervention and 81 from comparison schools. The intention-to-treat analysis found one significant change in family environment.

Furthering the understanding of parent-child relationships: a nursing scholarship review series. Part 5: parent-adolescent and teen parent-child relationships.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine nursing's contribution to understanding the parent-adolescent and the teen parent-child relationships.

Conclusion: Relationships between parents and adolescents may reflect turmoil and affect adolescents' health and development. The social and developmental contexts for teen parenting are powerful and may need strengthening.

Furthering the understanding of parent-child relationships: a nursing scholarship review series. Part 4: parent-child relationships at risk.

Purpose: The purpose of this integrative review is to synthesize nursing scholarship on parent-child relationships considered fragile because of parent-child's chronic condition or occurrence within a risky context.

Conclusions: Most reviewed studies demonstrated negative effects of risk conditions on parent-child relationships and documented importance of child, parent, and contextual variables. Studies were predominately single investigations.

Furthering the understanding of parent-child relationships: a nursing scholarship review series. Part 3: Interaction and the parent-child relationship--assessment and intervention studies.

Purpose: This integrative review concerns nursing research on parent-child interaction and relationships published from 1980 through 2008 and includes assessment and intervention studies in clinically important settings (e.g., feeding, teaching, play).

Furthering the understanding of parent-child relationships: a nursing scholarship review series. Part 2: Grasping the early parenting experience--the insider view.

Purpose: The purpose of this integrative review is to systematically and critically synthesize nursing scholarship on parents' perspectives of the parent-child relationship during infancy.

Conclusion: Research has shown that the process of establishing the parent-child relationship is highly individualized and complex. Numerous barriers and facilitators influencing this relationship have been identified that are relevant to nursing.

Furthering the understanding of parent-child relationships: a nursing scholarship review series. Part 1: Introduction.

Purpose: Understanding the parent-child relationship is fundamental to nursing of children and families. The purpose of this integrative review is to explore nursing scholarship published from 1980-2008 concerning parent-child relationships. Study approaches are examined, critiqued, and future directions for research identified.

Mothers of children with special health care needs: documenting the experience of their children's care in the school setting.

The numbers of children with special health care needs (CSHCN) have increased in schools. This study was conducted to document mothers' experiences of the care their CSHCN receive across health care and educational settings. Data were collected during standardized, open-ended, one-on-one interviews with 10 mothers of CSHCN in urban, suburban, and rural areas in a Midwestern state.

Predictors of parenting stress in a diverse sample of parents of early adolescents in high-risk communities.

Background: Parenting stress is associated with negative parenting practices, which have been linked to increased youth health risk behaviors. It is important, therefore, to understand the most salient contributors to parenting stress in families who live in communities considered at high risk of the development of youth problem behaviors.

Objective: On the basis of a model derived from the model of parenting stress of R.

Evaluating content validity and test-retest reliability of the children's health risk behavior scale.

Objective: Describe the instrument development process and report the validity and reliability of the Children's Health Risk Behavior Scale (CHRBS), a scale designed to screen for health risk behaviors among youth aged 10-13 Years.

Methods: Domain identification and item generation using the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance Survey from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and testing relevance and test-retest reliability among a target audience sample of 77 fifth graders in their classrooms in two separate public school districts.

Results: Youth performed their tasks as expert item reviewers effectively.

Parent-child communication processes: preventing children's health-risk behavior.

Purpose: Review individual, family, and environmental factors that predict health-risk behavior among children and to propose parent-child communication processes as a mechanism to mediate them.

Conclusions: Improving parent-child communication processes may: reduce individual risk factors, such as poor academic achievement or self-esteem; modify parenting practices such as providing regulation and structure and acting as models of health behavior; and facilitate discussion about factors that lead to involvement in health-risk behaviors.

Practice Implications: Assessment strategies to identify youth at risk for health-risk behavior are recommended and community-based strategies to improve communication among parents and children need development.

Enhancing survey data collection among youth and adults: use of handheld and laptop computers.

Tobacco use, alcohol and other drug use, early sexual behavior, dietary practices, physical inactivity, and activities that contribute to unintentional and intentional injuries are a significant threat to the health of young people. These behaviors have immediate and long-term consequences and contribute to diminished health, educational, and social outcomes. Research suggests that health risk behaviors exhibited during adolescence and adulthood have their origins earlier in childhood and preventive interventions are less successful after the risk behaviors have begun.