Roles of Nurses on Health Promotion and Infection Control

School Nursing Essay
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School Nursing Essay
Question One
Various government agencies such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Healthy People.gov provide resources that can help school nurses promote good health in school. For instance, Healthy People.gov provides evidence-based resources that can help school nurses make more informed, evidence-based decisions about health promotion in schools. According to Healthy People.gov (2021), evidence-based resources include published reviews of various research and interventions to improve health. Evidence-based resources can help nurses prevent or reduce healthcare issues within the school. In addition, they provide solutions to existing healthcare problems, such as promoting health among teenagers.
School nurses can search for evidence on a specific topic using the topic area or objectives as the search criteria. The search results provide the available resources and highlight the strength of the evidence, the date of publication, and the type of the resources (such as systematic reviews of clinical trials and qualitative research, among others) (Healthy People.gov, 2021). For instance, school nurses can search evidence-based resources for improving adolescent wellness. The search results can provide evidence on addressing teen pregnancies, reducing violence, and promoting physical activity. The results are helpful to school nurses and other stakeholders, such as students and parents who are concerned with the health of their children. A simple search on this government resource for health promotion provides evidence-based resources that all stakeholders can utilize to promote students’ health.
Question Two
The CDC acknowledges the effectiveness and the value of using animals in the classroom for teaching purposes. However, it also recognizes the potential risks that animals present to school-aged children. It has provided several guidelines to help protect children from the risk of animal-related infection and injury (CDC, 2007).
The CDC recommends hand-washing after every contact with an animal, animal products, or environment within a school setting. Cleaning should extend beyond hand-washing; it should also incorporate cleaning and disinfecting of all animal contact areas. If children are involved in cleaning such areas, they should be under adult supervision. Animals should also be kept clean and lice-, fleas-, ticks-, mites-, and intestinal parasite-free. It also recommends that there should be specific areas designated for animal contact. This can ensure better control of animal presence in the school. Additionally, the CDC recommends ensuring that animals are under proper restraints or are enclosed in cages. Animals should also not be allowed to wander around or fly free. This helps avoid injuries from unrestrained animal attacks. They should also not be allowed to interact/get in contact with wild animals. For children under five years, the CDC recommends close supervision of any human to animal contact. At this age, children are more likely to get infected by germs carried by animals. Further, animals should not be allowed in food/drink preparation areas, nor should food be allowed in designated anim...