Bright Futures Mental Health Training for School Nurses

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Bright Futures - Mental Health Information

Trainings for School Nurses

Bright Futures: School Nurse Mental Health Promotion Instructor Training was a program designed to increase school nurses’ confidence in supporting children and families with mental health issues by using Bright Futures in Practice: Mental Health, and other health promotion strategies. The trainings were presented by Bright Futures at the University of Washington, Child and Adolescent Health at the Department of Health, Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction, Department of Social and Health Services, the School Nurse Corps, and the School Nurse Organization of Washington.

Two days of intensive training were held in August 2004, with a follow-up meeting in May 2005. Participating school nurses made plans for and conducted trainings in their home districts after the first meeting. In all, the group provided 42 trainings to over 320 school nurses and 110 other school district staff across the state.

Follow-up surveys of school nurses done in March 2006, showed that:

• 57 percent of the nurse are familiar with or have used Bright Futures
• Bright Futures is used mostly for these purposes:

• As a personal reference.

• As a reference to respond to issues and concerns from staff/coworkers.

• As a reference to respond to issues and concerns from parents.

• The most commonly used Bright Futures reference books are:

• Bright Futures in Practice: Mental Health.

• Family Tip Sheets.

• Bright Futures in Practice: Nutrition.

• Guidelines for Health Supervision of Infants, Children and Adolescents.

About 80 percent of the nurses expressed interest in more training, especially web-based trainings.

Although the project is completed, these school nurse Bright Futures champions continue to spread the word, and keep in touch via occasional conference calls.

Thoughts About Bright Futures in Mental Health from Participating School Nurses:

• “I have used the Bright Futures Mental Health Tool Kit a lot – both to screen kids and to track how changes in medications affect their school performance.”

• “I have found that teaching others has been the best way for me to become familiar with and use the resources.”

• “The school nurses plan to use the Mental Health Practice Guidebook and Tool Kit in their daily practice with students, families and staff.”

• “Staff is excited about the possibility of bringing the community together more to address mental health challenges.”

• “The nurses left the training well armed with ideas and tools to improve their mental health practice in their individual districts.”

• “Leaving the training with some sort of written Bright Futures plan to take back to their districts was important.”

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