Hello and happy almost summer,

What a different ending to school we had and I don’t think the start to summer will be much different. My feelings about all the precautions we take are so mixed. You listen to one person saying we need to stay home and stop the spread. But, will it really stop the spread or just slow it? How will we ever develop herd immunity if we all stay home? Can we afford to live this way until a vaccine is produced and provided? If it is this confusing for our daily lives how does it look for our work lives and children going back to school in the fall?

Our school health issues team has worked diligently to develop some guidelines to help you when we all go back to school. You can find these resources on our website along with guidelines from NASN and other organizations.

https://www.txsno.org/home

We are going to try something different. We are going to have a ‘Town Hall’ meeting to help explain what returning to school might look like. The meeting will be June 17th at 5:30 pm. We will put the link on our web page, https://www.txsno.org/home when the meeting has been scheduled.

I hope this summer you will take the time to rest, relax and enjoy life. As we have seen so far this year tomorrow isn’t promised to any of us. Know that your TSNO board and EC will be working for you this summer. At this time our conference is still scheduled to take place in Houston in November. We will keep you posted of any updates to that.

Keep cool,

Lisa

Transforming School Nurse Leadership from Vision to Reality

As nurse leaders, school nurses are fostering collaboration and guiding decision-making with parents, fellow colleagues, school leaders, outside agencies and school communities during the COVID-19 pandemic crisis. A variety of activities include, but are not limited to, providing virtual student health education, creating health videos, contact tracing, attend virtual meetings, assist with food and technology distribution, staying connected with parents, developing return to school guidelines, sewing masks, working in hospitals or in COVID-19 testing sites, and so much more.

These are challenging times we face today, which supports the concept: Every child deserves a school nurse, all day, every day. School nurses are leaders on the front lines, delivering healthcare for students in the education setting, as well as providing services for their school community. The time to close the gap in student healthcare and education is now: This week your voice and action are needed. NASN Virtual Hill Day is June 3rd and 4th. NASN has developed a toolkit for your convenience with sample tweet messages and email letter, each asking your Congressman and Senators for support in federal funding for 10,000 new school nurses for the upcoming school year. Consider the historical accomplishment by NASN and SpaceX on May 31st, when we witnessed astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken blasting into orbit from an American space port and docking with the International Space Station 19 hours later. Doug Hurley said, “…reach for lofty goals, work hard, and look what you can accomplish…”.

In your service,

Francis Luna

NASN-TX Director

To learn more visit https://www.nbcsn.org/

Do you know a great nurse? Share all that she (he) does for students, faculty, and community by nominating that nurse for Texas School Nurse of the Year. One applicant per region, must be submitted through the Region President. For application go to: http://www.txsno.org/abouttsno/awards/schoolnurseoftheyear

Is your School Nurse Administrator head and shoulders above the rest? Do you want to recognize him or her for their leadership in school health? Then recognize them for the School Nurse Administrator of the Year award. For more information go to: http://www.txsno.org/tsno/abouttsno/awards/schoolnurseadministratoroftheyear

Applications due by June 15th.

http://www.txsno.org/membership/jointsno

This is just one example of how membership pays for itself! Stay tuned for more examples!