Feasibility Assessment of a School Nurse-Led Approach Using Chronic Absenteeism to Establish the School-Based Active Surveillance Process

Abstract

This article shares what was learned from the feasibility assessment of a nurse-led school-based active surveillance (SBAS) pilot to track chronic absenteeism using myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) as an exemplar. This pilot encompassed a 3-year period with training and feedback from school nurses (SNs) on data collection and ME/CFS. SNs found that the SBAS process helped them effectively identifying undiagnosed conditions. The assessment revealed the importance of focusing outreach efforts and establishing relationships with the school leadership in developing health policies and programs in the school setting. The pilot data were used to develop a manual to guide SNs for the SBAS process. This can be viewed as a model for SNs in establishing a surveillance to identify and track conditions like ME/CFS. With overlapping symptoms of Long COVID to ME/CFS, this assessment may provide insights for additional efforts to understand the impact of Long COVID on students’ education.

Keywords

chronic absenteeism myalgic encephalitis/chronic fatigue syndrome long COVID school-based active surveillance chronic conditions school nurse education

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Arimas-Macalino

Weismuller

P. C.

McClanahan

(2019). Addressing illness-related chronic absences. NASN School Nurse, 34(6), 357–362. https://doi.org/10.1177/1942602X19852749

Balfanz

Byrnes

(2012). The importance of being in school: A report on absenteeism in the nation's public school. https://ies.ed.gov/ncee/edlabs/regions/west/relwestFiles/pdf/508_ChronicAbsenteeism_NatlSummary_Balfanz_Byrnes_2012.pdf.

Balfanz

Byrnes

(2018). Using data and the human touch: Evaluating the NYC interagency campaign to reduce chronic absenteeism. Journal of Education for Students Placed at Risk, 23(1-2), 107–121. https://doi.org/10.1080/10824669.2018.1435283

Bauer

Liu

Schanzenbach

D. W.

Shambaugh

(2018). Reducing chronic absenteeism under the Every Student Succeeds Act. https://www.brookings.edu/research/reducing-chronic-absenteeism-under-the-every-student-succeeds-act/.

Brundage

A. H.

Castillo

J. M.

Batsche

G. M.

(2017). Reasons for chronic absenteeism among Florida secondary students. Retrieved from http://floridarti.usf.edu/resources/format/pdf/FloridaAggregateRCAReportFinal.pdf.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2014). Whole school, whole community, whole child. https://www.cdc.gov/healthyschools/wscc/wsccmodel_update_508tagged.pdf.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2018). ME/CFS in children. https://www.cdc.gov/me-cfs/me-cfs-children/index.html.

Every Student Succeeds Act, 20 U.S.C. § 6301 (2015)

Friedman

K. J.

Mattey

Newton

(2018). School nurses can improve the lives of students with myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome. NASN School Nurse, 33(6), 372–379. https://doi.org/10.1177/1942602X18795299

10.

Gottfried

M. A.

(2019). Chronic absenteeism in the classroom context: Effects on achievement. Urban Education, 54(1), 3–34. https://doi.org/10.1177/0042085915618709

11.

Groseclose

S. L.

Buckeridge

D. L.

(2017). Public health surveillance systems: Recent advances in their use and evaluation. Annual Review of Public Health, 38, 57–59. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-publhealth-031816-044348

12.

Jacobsen

Meeder

Voskuli

V. R.

(2016). Chronic student absenteeism: The critical role of school nurses. NASN School Nurse, 31(3), 178–185. https://doi.org/10.1177/1942602X16638855

13.

Jason

L. A.

Katz

B. Z.

Sunnquist

Torres

Cotler

Bhatia

(2020). The prevalence of pediatric myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome in a community-based sample. Child & Youth Care Forum, 49(4), 563–579. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10566-019-09543-3. Epub 2020 Jan 23. PMID: 34113066; PMCID: PMC8186295

14.

Kilfoy

R. C.

(2020). How a school nurse can reduce student stress using systems-level thinking. NASN School Nurse, 35(6), 332–336. https://doi.org/10.1177/1942602X20960404

15.

Levy-Myers

(2017). The high costs of chronic student absenteeism. School Business Affairs, 82(6), 24–26. https://www.athenasworkshop.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/SBA-May-2016-High-Costs-of-Chronic-Student-Absenteeism.pdf

16.

Maughan

E. D.

(2019). Breaking the glass cage: The power of data, courage, and voice. NASN School Nurse, 34(2), 95–99. https://doi.org/10.1177/1942602X18815444

17.

Maughan

E. D.

Bergren

M. D.

Johnson

K. H.

(2021). The national school health data set: Every student counts! new data platform. NASN School Nurse, 36(1), 29–31. https://doi.org/10.1177/1942602X20975873

18.

Maughan

E. D.

Johnson

K. H.

Bergren

M. D.

(2018). Introducing NASN's new data initiative: National School Health Data Set: Every Student Counts! make this YOUR year of data. NASN School Nurse, 33(5), 291–294. https://doi.org/10.1177/1942602X18791572

19.

McClanahan

Weismuller

(2015). School nurses and care coordination for children with complex needs: An integrative review. The Journal of School Nursing, 31(1), 34–43. https://doi.org/10.1177/1059840514550484

20.

McFarland

Cui

Holmes

Wang

(2020). Trends in high school dropout and completion rates in the United States: 2019. https://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid = 2020117.

21.

Miles

M. B.

Huberman

A. M.

(1994). Qualitative Data Analysis: An Expanded Sourcebook. Sage Publications.

22.

Morris

N. S.

Rosenbloom

D. A.

(2017). Defining and understanding pilot and other feasibility studies. American Journal of Nursing, 117(3), 38–45. https://nursing.ceconnection.com/ovidfiles/00000446-201703000-00027.pdf https://doi.org/10.1097/01.NAJ.0000513261.75366.37

23.

National Association of School Nurses (n.d.). The National School Health Data Set: Every Student Counts!. https://www.nasn.org/research/everystudentcounts.

24.

National Association of School Nurses (2015). School nurse's role in combating chronic absenteeism. Retrieved from https://higherlogicdownload.s3.amazonaws.com/NASN/8575d1b7-94ad-45ab-808e-d45019cc5c08/UploadedImages/PDFs/Advocacy/whitepaperabsenteeism.pdf.

25.

National Association of School Nurses (2016). Framework for 21st century school nursing practice: National association of school nurses. NASN School Nurse, 31(1), 45–53. https://doi.org/10.1177/1942602X15618644

26.

National Association of School Nurses (2018). School nurses: An integral member of the school team addressing chronic absenteeism: Position statement. https://www.nasn.org/nasn/advocacy/professional-practice-documents/position-statements/ps-absenteeism.

27.

National Association of School Nurses (2019). Translating strategies into actions to improve care coordination for students with chronic conditions. https://www.pathlms.com/nasn/courses/11191/documents/15674.

28.

National Association of School Nurses (2020a). School Nurse-Led Surveillance of Chronic Absenteeism. https://www.pathlms.com/nasn/courses/24594.

29.

National Association of School Nurses (2020b). Framework for 21st century school nursing practice: Clarifications and updated definitions. NASN School Nurse, 35(4), 225–233. https://doi.org/10.1177/1942602X20928372

30.

Roesler

Fato

Obst

(2022). Long COVID-the new “invisible” illness: How school nurses can support the nursing and educational teams for student success. NASN School Nurse, 37(2), 90–95. https://doi.org/10.1177/1942602X211059427

31.

Roush

(2017). Chapter 19: Enhancing surveillance. In Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Ed.), Manual for the surveillance of vaccine-preventable diseases. (pp. 1–4, Enhancing Surveillance: Chapter 19 – VPD Surveillance Manual (cdc.gov)), Vaccine Preventable Diseases Surveillance Manual: Enhancing Surveillance | CDC https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/pubs/surv-manual/chpt19-enhancing-surv.html

32.

Rowe

P. C.

Underhill

R. A.

Friedman

K. J.

Gurwitt

Medow

M. S.

Schwartz

M. S.

Speight

Stewart

J. M.

Vallings

Rowe

K. S.

(2017). Myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome diagnosis and management in young people: A primer. Frontiers in Pediatrics, 5(121), 2. https://doi.org/10.3389/fped.2017.00121

33.

Schroeder

Malone

S. K.

McCabe

Lipman

(2018). Addressing the social determinants of health: A call to action for school nurses. The Journal of School Nursing, 24(3), 182–191. https://doi.org/10.1177/1059840517750733

34.

U.S. Department of Education (2019). Chronic absenteeism in the nation's schools: A hidden educational crisis. https://www2.ed.gov/datastory/chronicabsenteeism.html#four.

Supplementary Material

Please find the following supplemental material available below.

For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.

For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.

0.00 MB