Transition Planning for Youth With Special Health Care Needs (YSHCN) in Illinois Schools.

"Transition Planning for Youth with Special Health Care Needs (YSHCN)" chronicles the research and work completed by agencies in Illinois to provide examples of best practice in transition planning. Increasing numbers of YSHCN survive into adulthood creating a need for focus on the transition to adult life for these young people, including meeting health care needs. As a part of the Transitions project, the Illinois Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics and the University of Illinois at Chicago Division of Specialized Care for Children surveyed Illinois public high schools to identify transition planning efforts, staff training needs and used those results to develop and implement training. A natural way to organize health services is by integration with school transition services. The credentialed school nurse would be the ideal person to contribute to the development of the health care transition plans based on the student's heath care provider's medical management plan.

Discovering the leader within yourself: school nurses as leaders.

School nurses are leaders every day, sometimes with ambivalence and sometimes fully embracing the leadership role. The authors were participants and trainers in the successful School Nurse Leadership Program of the Healthy Schools Campaign. The article describes five principles of effective school nurse leadership to help school nurses discover the leaders within themselves: passion, knowledge, advocacy, relationships, and communication. School nurses are encouraged to set leadership goals. Participants in a session at the NASN 2011 annual conference described a variety of 6-month goals including "Invite myself to the administrative meetings at least one time per quarter; present on a topic for at least 5 minutes. "Setting simple yet attainable goals is the first step to recognizing leadership in oneself.

NASN position statement: caseload assignments.

It is the position of the National Association of School Nurses (NASN) that schools should employ professionally prepared Registered Nurses, to conduct and supervise school health programs which address the variety of health problems experienced by school children. NASN recommends a formula-based approach with minimum ratios of nurses-to-students depending on the needs of the student populations as follows: 1:750 for students in the general population, 1:225 in the student populations requiring daily professional school nursing services or interventions, 1:125 in student populations with complex health care needs, and 1:1 may be necessary for individual students who require daily and continuous professional nursing services. Other factors that should be considered in the formula-based approach are number of students on free or reduced lunch, number of students with a medical home, and average number of emergency services per year.