Health equity was the overarching topic of the University of Delaware’s School Nurse Professional Development Day.
Over 300 frontline pediatric healthcare workers from across the state joined together Friday to discuss the barriers they face each day to providing care and services.
Stacy Robinson is a float nurse with the Indian River School District. She says southern Delaware in particular is struggling to find healthcare services that meet the needs of the population - both pediatric and adult.
“It’s just the basic things, like being able to see and having good teeth, which really impact your overall health. Those things have been difficult to get a hold of in Sussex County in the last few years.”
Culturally competent care to alleviate language barriers faced by the county’s large immigrant population is also scarce.
Schools sometimes provide screenings for things like lead, vision, dental, and scoliosis, but a lack of staffing makes that rarer. And with the lack of healthcare providers in Sussex County, students who find a need for further care following those screenings have nowhere to go.
Programming from the nearly 7-hour long School Nurse Professional Development Day event hosted by UD was a way for them to understand what school nurses needed to deliver the care required of them and their community.
“This was a great first step in trying to just make sure that the issues that we are having are recognized. So that we can then start to put plans together to move services and healthcare providers into place that can provide these services for our kids,” said Robinson.
UD also provided professional development opportunities throughout the day.
This included seminars on topics like neurodivergence and ADHD in kids, specialized training in clinical conditions such as allergies, diabetes, and pediatric cardiac arrest, and grant writing opportunities.
State Rep. Melissa Minor-Brown - House Majority Leader and registered nurse - spoke to the nurses about how they can push state lawmakers to address their needs.
She says school nurses are on the front lines of pediatric healthcare.
“And they're seeing so much. And I know that there are times when they hit roadblocks or barriers and they're like ‘I know if I could change this one thing, this kid could have a better quality of life.’ And so that's why I told them today: when you are in a situation, and you start thinking that way I need you to pick up the phone and call your legislator. Or reach out to the DNA or the DSNA and say ‘this is an issue and I need your help trying to solve it.’ And that’s where we come in,” explained Minor-Brown.
This event was the first of its kind put on by the University of Delaware, and aligns with their goals in improving pediatric healthcare across the state.
One of their seminars focused specifically on strengthening the partnership between UD and school nurses.
This was facilitated by Dr. Lauren Covington, Assistant Professor of the University of Delaware School of Nursing. She says they mainly focused on figuring out what resources the University could provide school nurses with immediately, and identifying funding priorities to help them on an ongoing basis to support the health of the kids under their care.
“At the end of the day we all share the same goal: helping children and families live a productive and healthy life," said Covington. "And that’s really the mission of nurses overall, we’re really holistic in our practice. School nurses are at the helm of that, so I think it’s just wonderful that we’re all able to come forward with this one goal and figure out how we can push this agenda forward to improve the health of children."
