Help for Students with Anxiety:
There has been an increase in the number of students showing signs of acute anxiety at school. While the school has many resources for helping students with anxiety the school nurse is under-utilized in this regard. More and more students are presenting to the nurse with signs of acute anxiety and until now the school nurse has had little to offer except rest and referral to the school counselor. As part of my work toward earning my doctor of nursing practice degree, I am implementing a quality improvement project in the nursing care plan for students with acute anxiety symptoms. Starting in mid-February, the school nurse will have resources to help calm students who are experiencing acute anxiety symptoms at school and educate them on methods for working through their anxiety. The change in the care plan will offer several stations to help work through anxiety that have been shown to be effective in other settings. The stations will include such things as mindfulness, distraction games, exercise, and art. The nurse will assess students as usual and if the assessment reveals that the student is experiencing anxiety they will be offered a choice of interventions which the student and nurse determine might be helpful to reduce the symptoms of anxiety and allow the student to return to class with a mindset ready for learning and participation in class activities. All other resources will remain in place for students if this change in care is not helpful. This enhancement to the plan of care for students with anxiety will give the nurse more options for assisting students in school.
Reminder from Your School Nurse:
All 6 grade students are required to have a record of a physical exam and all 7th grade students are required to have a record of a dental exam on file at the school. A physical or dental exam performed by your child's personal health care provider completed 12 months prior to the start of school or any time during this school year will meet the requirement. The physicals can be performed at your family doctor's office or any walk-in clinic.
If you are not sure if you have turned in the forms please email me at rgriel@basd.net. I still have not received 111 6th grade physical and 137 7th grade dentals. That is about a half of each grade!
If you need either of these forms they can be downloaded from the district site under "Our School" then “school nurse” then “health forms”. Or your provider can print a copy from their system. You don’t need our form. If you need any of these forms sent home with your student call the nurse’s office at (814) 355-5466 ext 5005 or email me at rgriel@basd.net.
You may return the form to the school nurse via email (rgriel@basd.net), fax 814-353-5332 or drop it off at the office. If you have the physical scheduled please let me know the date of the physical or dental exam so I can be on the lookout for the form.