August 2019 - Student Health Services Department

By Debbie Reddick, RN, Health Aide Supervisor, Perrysburg Schools

The mission of Perrysburg Schools’ Health Services Department is to provide students and employees with a safe and healthy setting in which to learn and work, and to promote health and healthy decision-making skills for the individual, with the ultimate goal of a healthy community.

The following objectives assist us in this mission:
• To have a standardized delivery of care for health-related issues to all students in all school buildings,
• To decrease injury and liability by improving accuracy of health care delivery,
• To provide a well-defined and consistent system for dealing with crisis medical situations for each school building,
• To assist medically-compromised students in achieving educational success, regardless of limitations, by addressing their specific health needs in the school setting, and
• To promote, teach and validate healthy life skills.

The services and activities that the Health Services Department provides includes:
• Action Plans written for students with medical indications
• Annual anaphylaxis training for select staff members
• Automated External Defibrillator (AED) monitoring in all schools
• Clinic visit tracking
• Confidential health information management
• Dental presentations
• Diabetic Youth Services
• Employee professional development
• First aid trainings, including Playground, Cafeteria and ADK Monitors as well as Transportation Department
• Growth and development health classes
• Health Aide team meetings
• Health promotion in the schools
• Immunization compliance
• Health information shared with schools and families
• Kindergarten Roundup
• Medication/ first aid in-service for secretarial staff
• Individualized Education Program (IEP) and 504 Plan (disability accommodation) teams
• School district emergency responder training
• Vision Screens – Grades K-5, 7, 9 and 11

The Health Services Staff strives to be a positive influence in each area of the school district. We serve as resource persons for students, their families and employees. The aides serve a vital role in each school, taking care of physical, emotional and mental needs in order to provide quality care for students to be able to help them function in the school setting, so they may all achieve their greatest potential.

A challenge faced by the Health Services Department is volume. The department had 10,718 medication-related clinic visits during the 2018-2019 school year. This does not include unscheduled visits to the clinic, which typically are at or above the volume of medication visits.

We notice trends from our vantage point, for example, over the last few years there has been an increase in students presenting to the clinics with underlying emotional issues, such as anxiety-related symptoms. We continue to work as a team with our counselors and teachers to provide for the needs of these students.

Another trend we have seen related to hydration. Dehydration causes a lot of clinic visits – for symptoms such as headaches and dizziness. All students are allowed to carry water bottles, and thanks to the filling stations installed throughout the school district as well as the fact that students are allowed to carry water bottles to class with them in the upper grade levels, we have seen those visits begin to decline somewhat.

We have also witnessed an uptick in the number of students drinking high caffeine “energy” drinks. The harmful impact of so much caffeine in young people is something not everyone understands. Students come to the clinic with racing hearts and we typically are able to get them more comfortable with rest and hydration to dilute the effects of the caffeine. Caffeine also is dehydrating, so they are sometimes feeling the impact of that as well.

In younger students, we often see clinic visits related to them skipping breakfast or by eating breakfast foods low in protein and fiber. We use a car analogy with the students – that they need fuel to be able to learn just as cars need fuel to move. If they eat higher fiber/ higher protein foods, their blood sugar will rise slower and then drop slower, which avoids a mid-morning sugar crash.

We view clinic visits as opportunity for teaching. We explain the importance of drinking water, getting enough sleep and eating healthy in order for them to be able to concentrate and learn to the best of their abilities. We also make sure, particularly with younger students, that with the influx of food allergies, that food sharing is discouraged, even if it may seem like the polite thing to do.

We appreciate the school district’s continued support of the Health Services Department. We work very hard to help meet the physical and emotional needs of the students to help them be successful learners.