Fall is here and the school year is in full swing. In my area of the state the seasons of fall and winter are fighting. Yesterday we didn’t get above freezing and tomorrow we are supposed to have a high in the 70’s. It makes it very difficult when trying to decide what to wear.

TSNO completed their 17th annual conference this past weekend and it was a huge success. We had over 330 school nurses attend. The speakers were awesome, several I would like to hear again, and the location was amazing. If you have never attended the conference you don’t know what you are missing. Besides being able to complete over half of your required CNEs in a year, you also have the opportunity to network with school nurses from across the state.

In January of 2019, the World Health Organization (WHO) had a meeting where the director-general of the W.H.O., Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, made the official proposal to declare 2020 the year of the nurse and the midwife.

Dr. Ghebreyesus spoke of how nurses are the "bridge" of healthcare, a crucial link between the people of the community and the complex healthcare system. Nurses are on the "front lines" of healthcare, he says, and because of this, they are the key factor in achieving universal health coverage, which is an initiative the W.H.O is spearheading for the sake of bringing adequate healthcare to humans across the globe.

Dr. Ghebreyesus, who is an incredibly accomplished and impactful public health advocate, spoke with much pride and endearment of the nursing body, expressing how the role of nursing shall be "amplified and promoted" as the work of W.H.O. and Nursing Now moves forward.

Towards the end of his declaration, he sealed the deal by bringing attention to the fact that 2020 is also the 200th anniversary of Florence Nightingale, and according to Dr. Ghebreyesus, "we need to celebrate people like her who have contributed greatly to humanity."

What does this mean for the field of nursing? Annette Kennedy, who is the president of the International Council of Nursing, says this is an important stepping stone for nurses for many reasons: it will promote an excellent standard of education for nurses, create better working environments to retain nurses in the field and advocate for more advanced nurses which in turn gets more people better healthcare coverage.

I challenge each of you to find a way to let your district know that 2020 has been declared the Year of the Nurse. I will search for ways to accomplish this and share them with you through social media. TSNO is on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter. Like us and become a member of the group to get this information from us.

https://twitter.com/TxSchlNurses

https://www.facebook.com/Texas.School.Nurses.Organization/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/tsno-texas/

Take care of yourself in the coming weeks. Besides being the ‘most wonderful time of the year’ it is also busy and stressful. Take time for you!

Have a wonderful November,

Lisa

Power of the Purse is TSNO's state conference fundraiser. This year we established the TSNO Disaster Relief Fund and raised $1900 to provide assistance to nurses that have experienced a natural disaster! Thank you to all who donated and all who purchased purses!

Photo credit Joe Luna Photography

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In your service,

Francis

Francis Luna, MSN, RN, NCSN

TSNO-TX Director

NASN Executive Director Member

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I just finished the online NASN CNE, School Nurse Workload and Student Outcomes presented at a NASN conference by Donna Daughtry and Martha Engelke in 2017. Some of you may have attended this session at NASN.

This is such a good presentation!! It showcases a reproducible model of care of assigning nurses by campus acuity to achieve improved student outcomes. It is not just about making nurse assignments, it is about campus population assessments, interventions, and SNs availability to improve student health outcomes. I especially appreciated how SN availability and improved-health-outcomes were (can be) measured and correlated. I identified so many ideas that could be assimilated by school health directors and coordinators into their programs to improve population outcomes and assess program effectiveness. Regardless of the size or type of school a nurse is assigned to, the content of this presentation has value.

• The SN tools are real—not merely academic.
• The SN situations are real—not merely academic.
• The SN goals are challenging but doable on a measurable scales.

The 1 hour and 9 minutes (CNE 1.0 hour) is a time-worthy professional investment.

Linda Howard