Frontline Blog

When you think about templates, you might not imagine the most exciting work. Even the word “template” feels a little dry. And because templates are all about making processes universal, you might not imagine individualized care. And yet, templates are a way to empower school health professionals to focus less on paperwork, and more on students, something that benefits both the provider and the patient. So yes, it is totally reasonable to get excited about templates.

Believe it or not, data wasn’t always a factor in decision-making in schools. A lot of decisions were made subjectively. Lacking efficient digital records, educators didn’t have the data needed to make objective decisions. Fortunately, teaching has evolved into a science based on facts.

In 2019 we saw the first decrease in suicide rates since 1998. That’s the good news. But you would probably not be surprised to learn that the story was different in 2020. While it’s too soon to get the data for suicide rates, the CDC reports hospitals saw a significant uptick in the number of children under 18 admitted for mental health emergencies in the past year. Suicide attempts have skyrocketed, more than double the numbers in 2019.

Mental health awareness is on the rise in education, and with good reason. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, suicide is the second leading cause of death for youth between the ages of 10 and 19 — only accidents cause more. It’s prompted many education leaders to consider what role they can play in supporting students affected by mental health challenges.

As schools across the country grapple with the myriad challenges of operating during the COVID-19 pandemic, school nurses and their role in stemming the spread of the novel coronavirus have found themselves in the spotlight. This scrutiny has also served to highlight a problem that long predated the pandemic: the school nurse shortage.

The question of how to support students’ mental health was top of mind before the pandemic. Now it’s more critical than ever. COVID-19 has been an ongoing traumatic event for many students. And as schools reopen virtually or in person, figuring out which students need support — and how to support them — is a growing challenge for schools.

2020 has been a hard year: schools and workplaces have sent people home, unemployment is skyrocketing, loved ones have died. As schools closed, students found themselves navigating a new way of learning from home. For some, it was okay. For others, difficult home situations, hunger, lack of access to technology, and social isolation made learning impossible or close to it.

Robin Cogan is a school nurse in Camden, NJ and the author of the blog The Relentless School Nurse. In a recent episode of Frontline’s Field Trip podcast, Robin discussed questions school leaders would need to answer as they consider re-opening. Where do kids go when they don’t feel well, skin their knees, or have a sore throat while at school? To see the nurse, of course. But when schools begin to re-open this fall, school is going to be a much different place.