Digital Health History Form for Students

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Helpful School Nurse Tips: Knowing the health conditions of your students will prepare you to be able to provide appropriate care for all of your students. In addition, you can use this information to calculate the % of your students who have chronic health conditions, create Individualized Healthcare Plans, and other health related Action Plans.

Health History Purpose

The purpose of this digital student health history form is to provide an easier, yet formal way, for the school nurse to gather (collect data) on medical conditions for current students. Although this digital form is 100% editable, it currently offers parents a way to inform the nurse of the following:

Current health concerns

Explanation of the health concern

Description of how the health concerns impacts the student's school day

Requested accommodations the might benefit the student throughout the school day

Doctor contact information

As you can see, this digital health history form provides parents a chance to subjectively provide the school nurse with an overview of their child's current health conditions. The school nurse can then ask for needed / required follow up information from the student's parents and/or physician.

How To Collect A Student Health History

Have you ever had a parent call you with an update or have a child give you a verbal update? Those are great, but usually you prefer to have something is writing too. This digital student health history is a great initial data collection tool. Use this form within a follow up email - just make sure your Google settings are set so you receive notification when the form is completed. Follow up emails give you a chance to recap information from the conversation, review discussed accommodations, ask permission to share information with staff on a need to know basis, and ask any questions that you might have thought of since the conversation.

Why A Health History Is Important

Accurate student health histories are great!
Knowing what to do with the information from those health histories is even better!

Digital Health Records- Many schools use some sort of digital school management software; such as Skyward, SASI, PowerSchool etc. What program does your school us? IS there is a way to incorporate health history information into your school management software system? If so, use it :) It might seems time consuming at the moment, but you will save time in the long run.

Health Conditions Lists- Many moons ago, I used to create Excel Health Concern lists- this was my only option at the time and so it worked for me. I would create a column filled spreadsheet and sort and organize as needed! Thankfully now, I can use my school's school management software (Skyward) to organize this same information! Skyward allows the ability to add health concern information as a "Health Condition". Then, "Health Condition" reports can be created by grade level, graduation year, teacher, etc. These reports also provide an overall school summary including the number of students with each health condition. This information is very valuable for your end of the year (EOY) report for your school administration, school board, and/or supervisor.

Healthcare Plans- Use the gathered health history information to create individualized healthcare plans for your students. There are many FREE and paid examples of healthcare plans all over the Internet- just Google what you are looking for. Maybe you don't think you have enough time to create a healthcare plan for every student who might need one- that is OKAY! You can always create a generic plan to put in place for specific health conditions- asthma, seizures, food allergies etc. Then, you can decide which students need their own specific emergency action plans from their private physicians and use your time to encourage parents to provide those completed emergency plans to you.

Emergency Action Plans- Emergency Action Plans (EAP) are needed for students with known acute or chronic health conditions which have the potential to turn into a medical emergency while attending school or a school sponsored even and/or the health condition has the potential to negatively impact the student's learning process. There are many free and paid examples available online- again, just search what you are looking for many examples should appear.

Medication Forms- Knowing what medications a student is prescribed is nice to know. This knowledge can help you see the "bigger" picture. Many times students only take medication at home, but sometimes at school too. If medication is needed during school hours, then most districts require a physician's order and sometimes even have a specific form that needs to be completed. You can view medication form examples HERE. If a specific medication is included on an EAP then a separate medication form is typically not required.

Procedure Forms- As you filter through your student health history forms, you might find that a student requires a nursing procedure completed during school hours. These procedures might consist of: dressing change, g-tube feed, suctioning, catheterization, etc. Just like a doctor's order is required to administer medications in the school setting, a doctor's order should be on file in order for the nurse to complete any sort of nursing procedure in the school setting. Years ago in Illinois there was a "yellow manual" full of nursing procedures that may need to be completed in the school setting. I don't remember who published the manual and I don't have it available at the moment, but I will update this blog post if I find it! In the meantime complete an Internet search and I'm certain many examples will be available.