School nurses are an important part of public health because that’s where healthy behaviors start. They treat emergencies and chronic conditions. They tend to kids’ mental health, sometimes just by listening. They educate students and families about healthy eating and sleeping habits, exercise, and stress.
In Spokane Public Schools, nurses are set to take on an even greater role in the coming school year. Logan Elementary will open the district’s first elementary school-based wellness center that will be staffed by faculty and students from the WSU College of Nursing and the WSU Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine. It joins three high school-based health clinics in Spokane that are staffed by CHAS Health.
“Nursing and nurse practitioner students will provide the bulk of the care at Logan,” said Becky Doughty, a WSU College of Nursing graduate (MN ’12, BSN ’10) and the school district’s executive director of school support services.
That’s by design. Nursing students are required to complete clinical experiences in the community, but “as a clinical instructor at WSU, I know clinical sites are very hard to come by,” Doughty said.
The wellness center will help nursing and medical students, giving them experience working with pediatric patients, while also benefiting the school district and the community.
The CHAS and WSU-led clinics are separate from the services of school nurses in the schools where they’re located. But functionally, they extend school-based health care.
“They’re full-service health care clinics offering things that go beyond our scope in school nursing,” Doughty said. “We can refer a student straight down to the health centers.”
Nursing students appreciate clinical rotations as school nurses. It allows them to have an incredible impact on a community by working with children and families to maintain their health and well-being.
