SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, Jan. 13 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Departments of Health and Education, Universities, Culture and Sports of the Government of the Canary Islands report that this week school nurses have been incorporated into Early Childhood and Primary Education centers and Special Education Centers throughout the archipelago, thus starting the pilot project launched by both departments of the regional Executive.
The piloting of this project will benefit 14,831 boys and girls, including around 500 with Special Educational Needs (SEN).
In total, around twenty nurses will lead the project after the training period and will be in charge of developing the initiative in sixty early childhood, primary and special education centers corresponding to 36 basic health areas on all the islands.
The objective of this initiative, which introduces the figure of Nursing professionals in the classroom, is to meet the needs and health problems of the students, acting in the prevention of diseases and promoting the health of the entire educational community, collects a note from the Ministry of Education.
School nursing benefits students since if the interventions start from childhood, unhealthy lifestyles can be modified and risk situations in child and adolescent health can be controlled earlier; for society, since a young population educated in health can modify unhealthy behaviors; and for the health system, since promoting self-care of students with chronic disease leads to a reduction in complications, lower rates of exacerbations, morbidity, and complications.
The pilot project has been implemented since Monday in selected centers in a coordinated manner between both departments of the regional Executive and has the involvement of both the educational centers in which this piloting is implemented and the reference health centers in each area.
The educational centers participating in the pilot study have been chosen based on the incidence of students with pathologies or chronicity, so the school nurse will have her base consultation in these Special Education centers and in those that may generate greater demands for their service.
HEALTH NEEDS
This project aims to provide competent and evidence-based nursing care; develop individualized care plans; complement the support offered to students with special health needs at the school; support students with chronic illnesses; design promotion and education activities for health and encourage healthy habits in relation to food, physical activity, the use of free time and hygiene habits, among others.
It will also help to identify and assess the health needs and care required by students, act in emergencies, participate in the administration of treatments and medications prescribed to schoolchildren, identify behavior patterns and risk factors related to student health, review the care plan and promote the exchange of experiences and good practices in health education with other professionals.
The target population to which health care will be provided will be students with special health needs; students with chronic diseases such as asthma, diabetes or epilepsy, for example; the rest of the students who will benefit from the activities to promote health and healthy living habits and the educational community, in training in healthy living habits, accident prevention and health promotion.
Thus, there will be direct care for students with chronic diseases, health promotion and education activities, and follow-up to identify student needs and design, implement, and evaluate appropriate interventions to monitor student progress in health.
