MISSISSIPPI LEGISLATURE

1999 Regular Session

To: Rules

By: Senator(s) Kirby, Bryan, Ross

A RESOLUTION COMMENDING THE SCHOOL NURSES IN THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI FOR THEIR OUTSTANDING SERVICE.

WHEREAS, school nurses will be recognized for their outstanding services during the Health Awareness Week on National School Nurse Day on January 27, 1999; and

WHEREAS, school nursing has existed in the United States for more than 100 years, and in 1969, Mary Nell Kirkpatrick Haskell of Amory was the first certified school nurse in Mississippi; and

WHEREAS, school nurses promote and protect the health status of students and staff through health services and health education, and maintain a healthy environment; and

WHEREAS, school nurses have a number of responsibilities, including screening students for hearing and vision problems, visiting students at home who are classified as homebound, providing staff development for communicable and contagious diseases, checking students for head lice, dental problems and scoliosis, identifying asthma, communicating with physicians or mental health care providers, providing and monitoring routine student medications, training students and staff on diabetes and providing sugar checks, and maintaining and implementing strategic plans for treating emergencies; and

WHEREAS, school nurses strengthen and facilitate the educational process by improving and protecting the health of children and staff by helping remove health-related barriers to the learning process for individual children; and

WHEREAS, school nurses collaborate with other education and health care professionals to provide optimal school nursing care to the school community; and

WHEREAS, as of September 1997, the Mississippi Department of Education has employed 151 school nurses, and currently the state has approximately 170 school nurses in Mississippi's public schools; and

WHEREAS, school nurses contribute to the schools by: helping maintain a higher average daily attendance rate; providing a home-to-school connection for students with physical and mental problems; educating students, staff and community on health issues facing the classroom; preventing drug and/or alcohol abuse and intervening with students having such problems; and lowering teenage pregnancy through education; and

WHEREAS, the Legislature of the State of Mississippi finds it most appropriate to recognize such a remarkable group of people as the school nurses, who dedicate their lives to providing a safer, healthier school environment for the children of this state:

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE MISSISSIPPI SENATE, That we do hereby commend the school nurses throughout the State of Mississippi and extend our deepest appreciation for the outstanding services they provide to our school children.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, That copies of this resolution be furnished to the Mississippi State Department of Education and the members of the Capitol Press Corps.