The Entry-Into School Health History Intake: The Starting Point for Care Coordination

Many students enter school with a previously diagnosed chronic health condition necessitating school nurse management during the school day. Common pediatric chronic health conditions include asthma, diabetes, seizure disorder, and severe allergy to name a few. In addition, students might present with a less common health condition or an injury or short-term illness requiring school nursing services. Identification of student health conditions originate from a variety of sources, chief among them being school and sport physicals. Yet, primary healthcare provider information may not be provided for all students and, when provided, may not contain a complete health history. Thus, school nurses should establish a consistent method of collecting an initial entry-into school health history intake and periodic updates for all students, along with developing a system to distinguish between parent and healthcare provider reporting of health conditions. This is no small task. The purpose of this article is to discuss principles surrounding identifying students with health conditions, along with providing a sample intake form developed in one state that is adaptable for both paper and electronic formatting collection of data.