School Nurse-Led Health Assessment for Students Experiencing Homelessness: A Quality Improvement Project.

Childhood homelessness is increasing and is associated with negative health and academic outcomes. The goal of this quality improvement project was to improve access to healthcare and health outcomes for students experiencing homelessness through a school nurse-led comprehensive health assessment. The multilevel intervention included identifying students experiencing homelessness, conducting a standardized health assessment, and making referrals to care.

Associations of school night sleep duration and circadian preference with middle school-aged student attendance, tardiness, and suspension.

Objectives: Research has associated both school night sleep duration (SNSD) and circadian preference (CP) with middle school-aged students' attendance and tardiness, but the interaction between these characteristics remains unexplored within this context, along with the impact of SNSD and CP on school suspension likelihood. Thus, this study investigated associations between SNSD, CP, and their interaction with middle school-aged student attendance, tardiness, and suspension, while accounting for sociodemographic characteristics.

Participants: About 4175 students from 12 middle schools in the Madison, Wisconsin, Metropolitan School District.

Age- and gender-stratified adult myometric reference values of isometric intrinsic hand strength.

Study Design: Descriptive normative.

Introduction: Intrinsic hand strength can be impacted by hand arthritis, peripheral nerve injuries, and spinal cord injuries. Grip dynamometry does not isolate intrinsic strength, and manual muscle testing is not sensitive to change in grades 4 and 5.

How Can We Overcome the Challenges of Providing School-Based Fluency Services?

Providing speech and language services in the school setting can be challenging, especially for complex problems such as stuttering and other fluency disorders. Speech-language pathologists (SLPs) feel less comfortable working with students who have fluency disorders, which makes problem solving around delivering these services even more difficult. The purpose of this article is to identify three categories of challenges school-based therapists may face when evaluating and treating this population.

5-2-1-0 Activity and Nutrition Challenge for Elementary Students: New, Evidence-Based, Promising.

Obesity prevention in youth is a health priority, and teaching healthy habits toward this end is one of a school nurse's many responsibilities. A school nurse developed and implemented a school-wide, 2-week-long Activity and Nutrition Challenge (ANC) using the evidence-based 5-2-1-0 initiative to prevent and fight childhood obesity. Despite minimal promotion, nearly half of the students at two elementary schools participated and earned points by following the guidelines in the ANC.

The effect of Tourette syndrome on the education and social interactions of a school-age child.

Tourette syndrome is a neurological condition characterized by involuntary vocal or motor tics. Symptoms begin occurring before the age of 18 and are more common in boys than girls. Tics can change in severity and character from hour to hour or in stressful situations.

Promoting health through a developmental analysis of adolescent risk behavior.

Adolescents are the only U.S. population group not to improve morbidity and mortality since 1960.