229505 Forging Collaboration to Promote Student Health: Community Partnering in a Multi-Ethnic School Based Health Clinic

Wednesday, November 10, 2010 : 10:30 AM - 10:45 AM

Dorothy Zirkle, RN, PHN, PhD , Price Charities, San Diego, CA
Deborah Morton, PhD, MA , Dept of Family & Preventive Medicine, Division of Epidemiology, Chair, Tribally Based IRB, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA
Tim Allen , San Diego Unified School District, San Diego State University, City Heights Educational Collaborative, San Diego, CA
Improving health outcomes in children is inextricably linked to their educational success and the maximization of their intellectual potential. Good access to health services decreases absenteeism and improves educational outcomes. School Based Health Clinics (SBHCs) meet many of the AAP criteria for a medical home and have the potential to ensure all students receive medical attention when needed regardless of insurance status, ability to pay, language, socioeconomic and transportation barriers, and immigrant, undocumented or refugee status. Cost-effectiveness at a grass roots community level can be provided by SBHCs as they offer medication administration, coordination of services for special needs children, emergency medical management, triage services and assistance with chronic disease management such as asthma and diabetes. We report a collaborative hybrid model of student health care between an elementary School-Based Health Center (SBHC) and six other local clinics/organizations. This unique partnership provides funding and administration for a school nurse, a Certified Pediatric Nurse Practitioner, a Pediatrician, and two bi-lingual medical assistants, thus providing highly competent care to low-income, undocumented and refugee children and families. The school nurse and the nurse practitioner are considered on-site school staff and communicate daily and directly with the children, parents, pediatrician, teachers and school administration. Communication is continuous, not fragmented. We relate collaborative partnerships and discuss future sustainability efforts. Case examples illustrate where serious illness and potentially fatal diseases and complications were prevented and life-saving surgeries were performed that might not otherwise have occurred if not for the benefits of this exceptional partnership. We recommend the State of California fulfill its promise to begin providing direct grant funding to SHBCs for information technology infrastructure and technical assistance to improve administration and operations along with capital costs and facilities acquisition for new SHBCs.

Learning Areas:
Administration, management, leadership
Public health or related nursing

Learning Objectives:
1. Describe how School Based Health Clinics (SHBC) and school nurses can serve as a medical home to low-income multiethnic inner city communities. 2. Discuss how community partnerships along with other health care agencies and private business can collaborate to improve the health of students from K-12. 3. Compare how SHBCs are funded and operated in California with other states.

Keywords: School Health, Community Collaboration

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I am a PhD nurse and oversee the operation of two School Based Health Clinics and one school health office.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.