Project Spotlight: School Nurses

Guest author: April Schweikhard, MLIS, Reference and Instructional Services Librarian, University of Oklahoma-Tulsa, Schusterman Library The school nurse — I, myself, have fond memories of my childhood school nurses who conducted our health screenings and oversaw our health from elementary school through high school. I must admit that I was more than once guilty of faking ailments in order to escape class to visit the school nurse. But beyond our memories, what do we, as library professionals, know about school nurses? What are their needs and how might we be able to support them through health information outreach? Within the information sciences literature, very little is documented pertaining to school nurses and their information needs; however, two projects awarded through the National Network of Libraries of Medicine, South Central Region (NN/LM SCR) are attempting to fill this gap. In 2012, the University of Oklahoma-Tulsa Schusterman Library received the NN/LM SCR Health Information Needs Assessment Award, School Health Connection: A Health Information Needs Assessment of School Nurses in Tulsa County. As the goal of the project, the library hoped to attain an understanding of the information needs and behaviors of public school nurses in Tulsa County in order to later design and implement targeted information outreach services specific to this population. The project consisted of an electronic survey to assess the types of information frequently sought, sources ...
Source: Network News - Category: Databases & Libraries Authors: Tags: General (all entries) Grants and Funding Network Member Spotlight Outreach assessment award community assessment needs assessment nurse nursing oklahoma project school nurse tulsa Source Type: news