142nd APHA Annual Meeting and Exposition

Annual Meeting Recordings are now available for purchase

302751
Advocating for Improved School Health Services in Wisconsin: The WISHeS Project

142nd APHA Annual Meeting and Exposition (November 15 - November 19, 2014): http://www.apha.org/events-and-meetings/annual
Tuesday, November 18, 2014 : 4:50 PM - 5:10 PM

Teresa DuChateau, DNP, RN, CPNP , Wisconsin Public Health Association, Kimberly, WI
Sarah J. Beversdorf, MPH/MSW , Wisconsin Public Health Association, Kimberly, WI
Marie Wolff, PhD , Medical College of Wisconsin, Center for Healthy Communities and Research, Milwaukee, WI
In a 2012 statewide assessment of school health services in Wisconsin, results indicated that 40% of responding districts had a policy and protocol manual for emergency nursing services provided for after school events, 52% had a policy and procedure regarding medication errors, and 52% indicated they do not have a nursing procedure manual to refer to when performing skilled nursing procedures in a school setting.  Those and other identified challenges are now being addressed by WISHeS: Wisconsin Improving School Health Services project through the development and piloting of sample policies and procedures related to nursing services, medication administration and concussion management, along with a mobile school nurse procedure website which contains step-by-step instructions for 31 school nursing procedures.  Resource development has been informed by state and federal mandates in addition to extensive literature reviews.  All the resources include recommendations based on best practices.  During the 2013 and 2014 school years, fifteen Wisconsin school districts are piloting the resources and providing feedback on the usefulness, value, usability, accessibility and applicability of the resources.  Evaluation methods include pre- and post-tests, document review, and individual and small group interviews.  This presentation will provide an overview of the resources that have been developed, provide preliminary results from the piloting of the resources, and discuss how the implementation of the resources have resulted in capacity building or policy change in the piloting school districts during the 2013-2014 school year.

Learning Areas:

Conduct evaluation related to programs, research, and other areas of practice
Public health or related nursing
Public health or related public policy

Learning Objectives:
Describe the resources developed as part of the Wisconsin Improving School Health Services (WISHeS) project. Formulate ideas on how the resources can be utilized in their school health practice. Identify the process changes and barriers that have occurred in Wisconsin school districts through the implementation of the resources.

Keyword(s): Advocacy, Policy/Policy Development

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: Sarah Beversdorf has been engaged in partnership work and has managed projects and grants for over 15 years. She is currently the Executive Director of the Wisconsin Public Health Association, which was the lead community agency in writing and receiving the grant that supported this work. Ms. Beversdorf has a Masters in Public Health and a Masters in Social Work, and is a past president of the Wisconsin APHA affiliate.
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.