Natick Public Schools
Health Services
School Health Today
The Natick Public School (NPS) Nurses use the framework for 21st century school nursing practice to provide evidence-based, clinically competent and student-centered nursing care. NPS nurses care for all students to advance their health & well-being and support their education by ensuring they are healthy, safe, and ready to learn.
NPS NURSES PROVIDE THE FOLLOWING:
- Illness and injury prevention, assessment, and intervention.
Health and wellness promotion.
- Illness and injury prevention, assessment, and intervention.
Social-emotional support, referrals and resources.
- Individualized health care planning, 504 planning, and case management for students with special health care needs.
Medication administration and nursing procedures.
Communicable disease prevention and control.
Mandated health screenings:
Vision: grades K-5, 7 and 10
Hearing: grades K-3, 7, and 10
Postural: grades 5-9
Height, Weight and BMI: grades 1, 4, 7, and 10
Screening, Brief Intervention, Referral to Treatment (SBIRT): grades 7 and 9
Environmental health and safety.
Emergency preparedness and medical response.
Communication and collaboration with students, parents/guardians, school faculty/staff, and community providers of health care and support services.
School nursing today is a highly specialized practice of professional nursing that advances the well being, academic success, and life-long achievement of students. Today's school nurses are critical thinkers who facilitate positive student responses to normal development; they promote health and safety; they intervene with actual and potential health problems; they provide case management services; and they actively collaborate to build student and family capacity for adaptation, self-management, self-advocacy and learning.
~National Association of School Nurses~
Your NPS health clinics provide many important services but please know that they are not a diagnostic clinic. School nurses cannot diagnose illnesses, diseases, and/or injuries. After the school nurse administers first aid, it is the responsibility of the parent/guardian to contact their student's healthcare provider for diagnosis, treatment, and any necessary follow-up.