School nursing

They facilitate access to Medicaid and the State Children's Health Insurance Program to help families and students enroll in state health insurance programs and may assist in finding a medical home for each student who needs one.

Sudden cardiac arrest is common amongst school aged children and adolescents resulting in <1 to 10 deaths/100,000 population per year.

[7] This is thought to be in part due to the fact that inherited and acquired cardiomyopathies, arrhythmia syndromes, structural congenital heart defects, myocarditis, and coronary abnormalities that may be present in this age group may not be detected during routine sports physicals.

[10] The school nurse must be competent in management of pediatric health issues such as seizures, asthma, diabetes, and allergies.

[11] School nurses play a vital role in the reduction of absenteeism by promoting healthy practices among students and staff.

A large proportion of army volunteers - between 40% and 60% - had been found to be medically unfit for service, so in 1903, the government set up the Interdepartmental Committee on Physical Deterioration to study the causes.

The committee recommended that: The government reacted first by passing the 1906 Provision of School Meals Act, which allowed (but did not compel) local authorities to provide school meals, at no cost to the poor, and to raise a tax to pay for this.

Then the 1907 Education Act was passed, which established a team of school nurses at every local authority.

The act established clinics within schools to treat anything discovered, but parents had to pay for treatment; after 1912 the government made small contributions towards the cost.

In 1947, 8% of school children had lice infections, but the use of nit nurses had managed to reduce that to 3% within a decade.

Skin infections of any kind, which were once common, had become a rare phenomena by the end of the century, except those which affect the soles of the feet.