School Health
School Health
Appraisal and Importance
Learning institutions can have a tremendous effect on a child’s health. This is because, apart from home, a child spends most of his time in schools. Schools can thus form as the platform where children can be taught about health and how to embrace healthy habits. Schools work towards helping children avoid risky behavior such as alcohol, drug abuse, and bullying. A healthy school environment is one which promotes positive attributes and averts the adoption of bad habits in children. International agencies like World Health Organization (WHO) have participated in school health initiatives science 1995. The aim of the initiative is to mobilize and strengthen health and educational activities at local, regional, state and international levels.
The WHO school health initiative aims to reach out to students, staff, and the community as a whole (WHO, 2012). School health also involves engaging in school health services, such as free check up for students and staff, to ensure that they are healthy. School health services guarantee early detection, treatment and correction as well as prevention of diseases, disability and abuse. The importance of school health programs cannot be over emphasized. The school is suitable for the endorsement of health as schools shape the students mind and influence their habits. The issues regarding school health is essential as it not only affects students, but the families and communities too. Health issues affects student performance and their future prospects hence the need for positive and timely interventions.
Brief History of School Health
Active engagement in school health dates back to 1890’s when hired physicians and nurses examined students in schools in Boston and New York. The aim of the examination was to point out students with contagious illnesses and separate them from the rest of the school community. From 1900, the school health services spread to other states as it became apparent that school health equals healthy education. In late 1970’ health care providers such as a school nurse, school based psychologists and school-based health centers emerged. Currently, most public and private schools have embraced the ideology of school health and have adopted school health facilities and services aimed at having a healthy student’s population.
In Gwinnet County, the issue of health education is highly regarded as the education sector strongly believes there is a relation between a student’s health and his or her success in academic achievement. Learning institutions in Gwinnet are geared towards helping students acquire the knowledge and skills so as to have a healthy living. The County requires that learning institutions with grade K-5 must have a minimum of 90hours of instruction on health and physical education. Middle school students must also have one 9-week class in health education (Gwinnet County public schools, 2012). Students in high school must also take one unit of health education. The county of Gwinnet also advocates for parental involvement in efforts to provide students with comprehensive health education.
Ethical implications
Schools have the ethical obligation of ensuring that their students are healthy and uphold healthy standards in their lives. Health concerns such as Obesity is on the rise due to poor nutritional habits. It is the role of schools to educate the students on proper nutritional habits that keep away diseases such as obesity (Crawford, & Kayman, 2011). Healthy students result to healthy societies as the individual grows to be responsible adults. The ethical issues of choice and consent also arise in school health programs. Some parents may feel that the content their children are being taught is not right hence their desire to opt their children out of such lessons. In Gwinnet County, for instance, students are exposed to health materials dealing with family life, sexuality and HIV/AIDS. The parents, however, have the choice to opt the children out of the health education program (Gwinnet County public schools, 2012).
Other than ethical issues, there are several cultural issues that confront health educators. In school the culture of children may determine what they eat. Unfortunately, not all that the children consume is healthy. It is, however, difficult to change the perception of these children if they have strong cultural roots regarding what they should eat or how they should lead their lives. There are also various cultural issues that relate to topics such as HIV/Aids where some parents feel it is improper to expose young children to such topics as they are too young to comprehend.
Nurse Role in the Community
The role of nurse in a community has widened. The nurses are not only seen as care givers who focus on taking care of those recovering from an illness. The nurses are now responsible for the maintenance of health across the community. Nurses are also educators teaching communality how to maintain a healthy lifestyle so as to foster positive growth and development. In the school set up, nurses’ work with school administrators, to work out an elaborate plan aimed to ensure that students embrace health tips in their daily school endeavor.
Reference
Crawford, P. & Kayman, H. (2011). The ethical basis for promoting nutritional health in public schools. Preventing chronic diseases. Vol. 8(5); A95
Gwinnet County public schools, (2012). Health. Retrieved from http://www.gwinnett.k12.ga.us/gcps-edprogweb01.nsf/pages/Health
World Health Organization (WHO), (2012). Global school health initiative. Retrieved from http://www.who.int/school_youth_health/gshi/en/
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