RICHMOND —
In its efforts to decrease barriers to learning while improving community health, the Madison County Health Department’s partnership with local school districts has shown positive results, the program’s director told the health board Wednesday.
Director Michelle Malicote, one of only six Nationally Certified School Nurses in the state, led a presentation about what MCHD nurses are doing in Madison County and Berea Independent schools.
“Basically, we have 19 health departments within school buildings,” Malicote said. Local school boards have paid $476,000 to contract with the MCHD for health services in the upcoming school year, according to the budget passed by the board in June.
During the 2011-2012 school year, 75 percent of students in the county saw a school nurse or a member of the dental team at least once, Malicote said.
“I’ve very proud of that number,” Malicote said.
Overall, there were 27,958 total visits to school nurses, according to a handout provided by Malicote during the presentation.
Of those visits, 2,224 people were referred to a primary provider and 100 were taken to the hospital emergency room.
One of the main jobs of school nurses, besides dealing with emergent injuries and illnesses, is to monitor children with special health needs.
“We deal with a lot of children with chronic diseases in the school community,” Malicote said.
There are 61 schoolchildren with diabetes in Madison County, 778 with asthma, 1,896 with allergies, 249 with bee/wasp allergies and 78 that suffer from seizures, according to a handout from the presentation.
Malicote said that Type 1 diabetes is especially prevalent among Madison County children at about two times the national average. In the last school year, MCHD nurses gave 1,100 insulin injections and had 1,618 diabetes-related office visits.
One important duty of the school nurses is identifying children who may need emergency care at school and developing Emergency Care Action Plans for each one.
These plans are typically written for children with diabetes, asthma, allergic reactions and other conditions such as cystic fibrosis and kidney and liver transplants.
The plans protect children from serious injury or death and “describe the responsibilities and actions to be taken to protect all children in the school setting,” Malicote said.
Another program provided through the schools’ contract with the health department is dental care for preschool through third-grade students.
Eleven local dentists have donated their time during the last school year to provide screenings to schoolchildren.
The dental staff provides fluoride varnish applications two times a year for preschoolers and kindergartners, dental sealants and fluoride varnishes for second-graders, and evaluation of sealant retention and fluoride varnishes for third-graders.
In all, nearly $30,000 in donated dental care was provided to local schoolchildren, Malicote said.
Malicote said all these services have been provided to the school districts even with a 25-percent reduction last year in her nursing staff.
Four nurses were reassigned within the health department, she said.
While Mayfield Elementary and Berea Community schools each have a nurse assigned to them, other school nurses rotate between two or three schools each.
The health board peppered Malicote with questions about what services are provided by the her nurses and situations they face at the schools. The board members also complimented Malicote on the success of the program, including the board’s vice-chair Dr. John Johnstone.
“This is truly good public health,” Johnstone said.
Sarah Hogsed can be reached at shogsed@richmondregister.com or 624-6694.
Local News
MCHD school nurses see 75% of county students
Program to include more dental care
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