Grant Funds School Nurses To Boost Health Care Access
On Monday, the Lucile Packard Children's Hospital and the Lucile Packard Foundation for Children's Health announced that they would together provide $2.65 million for a project aimed at improving children's access to health care by providing more school nurses, the San Jose Mercury News reports (Feder Ostrov, San Jose Mercury News, 11/6).
The project will support full-time school nurses at four schools catering to low-income students in the San Jose Unified School District, as well as a nurse practitioner at the School Health Clinics of Santa Clara County. The nurse practitioner will consult with the nurses, provide primary care services, refer students to other health care providers and develop treatment plans for students with chronic illnesses.
About 16% of San Jose students have chronic health problems (Rauber, San Francisco Business Times, 11/5).
The project will run for five years, and its effects on children's health and school attendance will be evaluated by researchers from the Stanford University Medical School (San Jose Mercury News, 11/6).