School Health Advocate/Consultant
Many states now have a State School Nurse Consultant (SSNC) who works to improve the health and well-being of school aged children within the United States of America and their particular state. They work together through national associations, such as the NASSNC (National Association of State School Nurse Consultants). New Mexico has two consultants within the Department of Health and one within the Public Education Department as well as five School Health Advocates (SHAs).
Here in New Mexico, the state is broken up into five regions. Each region has its own uniqueness and needs. Within the state’s legislation, the MD acting as the Regional Health Officer (RHO) has oversight of school health in his/her respective region. The SHA Nursing role was put into legislation to be the liaison between the Regional Health Officer (RHO) and schools.
The SHAs are very similar to the SSNCs. Both roles exist to give guidance and technical assistance to the Local Education Agency (LEA) to help improve the quality of school health services administered.
To become either a SSNC or a SHA, you must have a strong nursing background and be very familiar with standards of practice, best practices, the state Nurse Practice Act, federal and state legislation, as well as with the elements which make up the specialty of school nursing.
The SHAs and SSNCs work together to facilitate, develop, guide, and support schools as they plan and implement school nursing policies and procedures. In addition, they develop trainings and continuing educational classes. For instance, at the Head-To-Toe Conference 2023, the SHAs and SSNCs together offered 9 contact hours for nursing in various sessions.
The SSNC works more closely with legislators and state leaders, but the SHAs have input as well and often volunteer to do legislative analysis each year during the legislative session. They both serve as spokespersons for the improvement of health services within our schools.
They disseminate updates and information on best practices, standards of practice, and evidence-based practices pertinent to the specialty practice of school nursing. As a resource for school nurses, they answer questions directly from the schools on various medical or practice issues.
In addition, the SSNCs and the SHAs are responsible for the management and revisions of the New Mexico School Health Manual which gives technical assistance on health topics in compliance with state and federal regulations and statutes.
These two roles are complex and you need to be detail/team/task oriented as well as able to project manage and hit deadlines. My Legal Nurse Consulting Certification has been invaluable in this position as well as all of my decades of nursing experience and my knowledge of pediatric care and teaching. This is my nursing niche. Is it yours?
