scholarly journals The Impact of COVID-19 on Pre-K-12 Students and Staff in a Mid-sized Metropolitan Area

2021 ◽  
pp. 575-584
Author(s):  
Paul Teran ◽  
Julia Kononowicz ◽  
Stephanie Kuhlmann ◽  
Julian Dedeaux ◽  
Kari Harris
Keyword(s):  
Metropolitan Area ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Health Department ◽  
Contact Tracing ◽  
Hybrid Education ◽  
Department Of Health ◽  
School Based ◽  
Sedgwick County ◽  
K 12 ◽  
The Impact

Objective: During fall 2020, schools used a variety of learning modes based on anticipated risk of viral transmission within schools. Methods: De-identified SARS-CoV-2 data from 11 school districts in the Wichita, Kansas metropolitan area from August 1 to November 15, 2020, was collated for analysis. The Sedgwick County Health Department (SCHD) and Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE) databases were accessed for community-level and contact tracing data. Results: Altogether, 13,573 staff and 54,479 students receiving full or partial on-site (hybrid) education were included. Few students (1.4%) or staff (4.7%) tested positive for SARSCoV- 2. District rates varied from 0.1% to 3.3% in students and 0.7% to 8.7% in staff. Students in grades 9-12 had a higher rate of positive tests and cases were more likely linked to school-based exposure. Staff rate by grade level did not show an identifiable trend; staff rates were higher in nonattendance centers. Conclusions: Low SARS-CoV-2 student case rates suggests on-site learning formats may be appropriate. School trends reflected community rate reinforcing that communitylevel interventions are necessary to decrease transmission. As new variants arise, transmission characteristics must be studied. Health and education partnership is important to ensure the greatest well-being for students and staff.

Knowledge, Skills, and Qualities for Effectively Facilitating an Adolescent Girls' Group

2011 ◽  
Vol 27 (6) ◽  
pp. 424-433 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carolyn Garcia ◽  
Sandi Lindgren ◽  
Jessie Kemmick Pintor
Keyword(s):  
Adolescent Girls ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Group Participant ◽  
Intervention Process ◽  
Group Format ◽  
School Based ◽  
Participant Experience ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Group Facilitators ◽  
Health And Well Being

Nurses employed in a variety of school settings often rely on group-format approaches to support the health and well-being of adolescent girls. The process of selecting an effective facilitator, and evaluating the impact of a facilitator on intervention process and outcomes, is rarely described. The purpose of this article was to synthesize the literature regarding facilitator knowledge, skills, and qualities to provide school-based researchers and practitioners with a framework for selecting and evaluating group facilitators. Literature was reviewed between Fall of 2008 and Spring of 2011. Findings were synthesized into categories that provide the organization for this article (why groups, why a facilitator, and the knowledge, skills, and qualities of an effective girls' group facilitator). Nurses need to carefully identify, select, and equip those who serve as facilitators because group successes, evidenced in the ways girls grow and support each other in growth, are the result of a successful, well-matched facilitator-group participant experience.

scholarly journals Prevalence and risk factors for in-school transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in Massachusetts K-12 public schools, 2020-2021

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandra B Nelson ◽  
Caitlin Dugdale ◽  
Alyssa Bilinski ◽  
Duru Cosar ◽  
Nira L Pollock ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Schools ◽  
Index Case ◽  
Transmission Risk ◽  
Mitigation Measures ◽  
Contact Tracing ◽  
Convenience Sample ◽  
School Based ◽  
Increased Risk ◽  
K 12 ◽  
Index Cases

Introduction The SARS-CoV-2 secondary attack rate (SAR) in schools is low when mitigation measures are adopted, Data on the relative impact of such strategies are limited. We evaluated the SARS-CoV-2 SAR in Massachusetts schools during 2020-21 and factors associated with transmission risk. Methods: In a convenience sample of 25 Massachusetts public K-12 school districts, de-identified information about SARS-CoV-2 cases and their school-based contacts was reported using a standardized contact-tracing tool. Index cases were included if they were in school while infectious. SAR was defined as the proportion of in-school contacts acquiring SARS-CoV-2 infection and designated as possible or probable in-school transmission by school-based teams. We compared exposure-specific SAR using unadjusted risk ratios (RR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI); p-values were calculated using Fishers exact tests. Results Eight districts (70 schools with >33,000 enrolled students) participated. There were 435 index cases and 1,771 school-based contacts (Table 1). Most contacts (1327/1771 [75%]) underwent SARS-CoV-2 testing and 39/1327 (2.9%) contacts tested positive. Of 39 positive contacts, 10 (25.6%) had clear out-of-school exposures and were deemed not in-school transmissions, so were excluded from further calculations. Twenty-nine (74.4%) contacts were deemed possible or probable in-school transmissions, resulting in an in-school SAR of 2.2%. Of the 29 in-school transmissions, 6 (20.7%) were staff-to-staff, 7 (24.1%) were staff-to-student, 3 (10.3%) were student-to-staff, and 13 (44.8%) were student-to-student; 6 (20.7%) occurred from index cases attending work/school while symptomatic. The unadjusted SAR (Table 2) was significantly higher if the index case was a staff member versus a student (RR 2.18, 95% CI 1.06-4.49; p=0.030), if the index case was identified via in-school contact tracing versus via school-based asymptomatic testing (RR 8.44, 95% CI 1.98-36.06; p=0.001), if the exposure occurred at lunch versus elsewhere (RR 5.74, 95% CI 2.11-15.63; p<0.001; all lunch transmissions were staff-to-staff), and if both parties were unmasked versus both masked (RR 6.98, 95% CI 3.09-15.77; p<0.001). For students, SAR did not differ by grade level. Conclusions Secondary attack rates for SARS-CoV-2 were low in public school settings with comprehensive mitigation measures in place before the emergence of the delta variant; lack of masking and staff-to-staff dining were associated with increased risk.

Creating Safe and Supportive Schools for Students Impacted by Traumatic Experience

2012 ◽  
pp. 253-264
Author(s):  
Joel M. Ristuccia
Keyword(s):  
Self Regulation ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Traumatic Experience ◽  
Student Needs ◽  
School Environments ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Safe School ◽  
School Based ◽  
Flexible Framework ◽  
The Impact

Addressing the needs of students impacted by traumatic experience begins with the development of trauma sensitive school ecologies. This can be achieved by addressing student needs in four domains: competence, self-regulation, relationships, and physical health/well-being. The characteristics of a trauma sensitive school include: 1. Staff awareness of the impact of trauma on learning; 2. Safe school environments for students, including physical, emotional and social safety; 3. Connections between students and the school community; 4. Coordination of efforts among school based, home and community based resources; and 5. Flexible and innovative responses to student needs to reinforce students’ sense of safety, connection to school, and success in school. The Flexible Framework (FF) is a process tool that is used to develop safe and supportive (trauma sensitive) school ecologies by assessing current needs, supporting the brainstorming of needed initiatives, guiding the implementation of new initiatives, and coordinating school wide efforts.

scholarly journals The Impact of COVID-19 on the Nursing Workforce: A National Overview

2021 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Garrett Chan ◽  
Jana Bitton ◽  
Richard Allgeyer ◽  
Deborah Elliott ◽  
Laura Hudson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Nursing Education ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Standards Of Care ◽  
Nursing Workforce ◽  
Comprehensive Overview ◽  
Strategy Model ◽  
And Migration ◽  
K 12 ◽  
The Impact

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant and negative impact on the nursing workforce. Immediate and long-term actions must be taken to mitigate the adverse effects of the pandemic. Understanding these effects in various contexts is essential to conduct research, implement innovative interventions, and create supportive policies. This article provides a comprehensive overview of the issues in the framework of six key areas of the HealthImpact Workforce Strategy Model, including K-12 and second-degree students, pre-requisite nursing education, and pre-licensure nursing education; upskilling the existing workforce; retention and well-being; and migration of nurses. We also discuss expanding advanced practice registered nursing scope of practice; crisis standards of care; and the impact of telehealth. Exemplars highlight the issues, and document action and innovation in the domains of workforce strategy, education, research, and policy in these challenging times.

scholarly journals In the long shadow of our best intentions: model-based assessment of the consequences of school reopening during the COVID-19 pandemic

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kaitlyn E. Johnson ◽  
Madison Stoddard ◽  
Ryan P. Nolan ◽  
Douglas E. White ◽  
Natasha S. Hochberg ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Viral Load ◽  
Significant Risk ◽  
Well Being ◽  
The United States ◽  
Contact Tracing ◽  
Disease Clusters ◽  
Asymptomatic Patients ◽  
Major Cluster ◽  
K 12

AbstractAs the United States grapples with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, a particularly thorny set of questions surrounds the reopening of K-12 schools and universities. The benefits of in-person learning are numerous, in terms of education quality, mental health, emotional well-being, equity and access to food and shelter. Early reports suggested that children might have reduced susceptibility to COVID-19, and children have been shown to experience fewer complications than older adults. Over the past few months, our understanding of COVID-19 has been further shaped by emerging data, and it looks increasingly likely that children are as susceptible to infection as adults and have a similar viral load during infection. While the higher prevalence of asymptomatic disease among children makes symptom-based isolation strategies ineffective, asymptomatic patients do not in fact carry a reduced viral load. Using assumptions consistent with the emerging understanding of the disease, we conducted epidemiological modeling to explore the feasibility and consequences of school reopening in the face of differing rates of COVID-19 prevalence and transmission. Our findings indicate that, regardless of the initial prevalence of the disease, and in the absence of systematic surveillance testing, most schools in the United States can expect 20-60 days without a major cluster emerging. Without testing or contact tracing, the true extent of these disease clusters may not be apparent, and our research suggests that the case count will underestimate the true size of the clusters by a large margin. These disease clusters, in turn, can be expected to propagate silently through the community, with potentially hundreds to thousands of additional cases resulting from each individual school cluster. Thus, our findings suggest that the debate between the risks to student safety and benefits of in-person learning frames a false dual choice. Given the current circumstances in the United States, the most likely outcome in the late fall is that students will be deprived of the benefits of in-person learning while having incurred a significant risk to themselves and their communities.

scholarly journals The Devil Is in the Detail: Challenging the UK Government’s 2019 Impact Assessment of the Extent of Online Marketing of Unhealthy Foods to Children

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (19) ◽  
pp. 7231
Author(s):  
Mimi Tatlow-Golden ◽  
Daniel Parker
Keyword(s):  
Impact Assessment ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Online Marketing ◽  
World Health ◽  
Unhealthy Food ◽  
Digital Devices ◽  
Department Of Health ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The Impact

Background: How much unhealthy marketing do children see on digital devices? Marketing of unhealthy food and beverages has long been identified as a factor in children’s preferences, purchase requests and consumption. Rising global obesity mandates States to craft environments that protect children and young people’s health, as recommended by the World Health Organization, among others. However, assessing the impact of marketing restrictions is particularly challenging: the complexity of digital advertising markets means that measurement challenges are profound. In 2019, the UK Department of Health published an Impact Assessment that applied a novel method aiming to calculate costs and benefits of restricting unhealthy food and beverage advertising on digital devices (planned for implementation by 2022). It estimated UK digital unhealthy marketing to children at 0.73 billion advertising impressions annually, compared to television impacts of 3.6 billion. Aim and Method: We assessed this conclusion by reviewing the UK Department of Health/Kantar Consulting’s Online Baseline Methodology (the “Government Model”). We examined the model’s underlying premise and specified the seven analytic steps undertaken. For each step, we reviewed industry and academic evidence to test its assumptions and the validity of data applied. Results: We found that, in each step, the Government Model’s assumptions, and the data sources selected, result in underestimates of the scale of digital advertising of unhealthy foods—at least tenfold, if not substantially more. The model’s underlying premise is also problematic, as digital advertising spend data relate poorly to digital advertising exposure, leading to further underestimation of market scale. Conclusion: We conclude that the Government Model very substantially underestimates the impact of digital unhealthy food advertising restrictions on health. This analysis has relevance for global policy and for the impact of regulation on children’s health and well-being.

The impact of school-based prevention of overweight on psychosocial well-being of children

2009 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 298-312 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. G. C. van Wijnen ◽  
G. C. W. Wendel-Vos ◽  
B. M. Wammes ◽  
W. J. E. Bemelmans
Keyword(s):  
Well Being ◽  
School Based ◽  
The Impact

scholarly journals “Mummy, Can I Join a Sports Club?” A Qualitative Study on the Impact of Health-Promoting Schools on Health Behaviours in the Home Setting

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (22) ◽  
pp. 12219
Author(s):  
Marla T. H. Hahnraths ◽  
Maartje Willeboordse ◽  
Annick D. H. M. Jungbauer ◽  
Corina de Gier ◽  
Carlien Schouten ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Physical Activity ◽  
Qualitative Study ◽  
Behavioural Change ◽  
Health Behaviours ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Home Setting ◽  
School Based ◽  
Health Promoting ◽  
The Impact ◽  
At Home

Information regarding school-based health-promoting interventions’ potential effects in the home environment is scarce. Gaining more insight into this is vital to optimise interventions’ potential. The Healthy Primary School of the Future (HPSF) is a Dutch initiative aiming to improve children’s health and well-being by providing daily physical activity sessions and healthy school lunches. This qualitative study examines if and how HPSF influenced children’s and parents’ physical activity and dietary behaviours at home. In 2018–2019, 27 semi-structured interviews were conducted with parents from two HPSFs. Interviews were recorded and transcribed, and data were coded and interpreted through thematic analysis. HPSF resulted in various behavioural changes at home, initiated by both children and parents. Parents reported improvements in healthy behaviours, as well as compensatory, unhealthy behaviours. Reasons for behavioural change included increased awareness, perceived support to adopt healthy behaviours, and children asking for the same healthy products at home. Barriers to change included no perceived necessity for change, lack of HPSF-related information provision, and time and financial constraints. Both child-to-adult intergenerational learning and parent-initiated changes play an important role in the transfer of health behaviours from school to home and are therefore key mechanisms to maximise school-based health-promoting interventions’ impact.

scholarly journals In the long shadow of our best intentions: Model-based assessment of the consequences of school reopening during the COVID-19 pandemic

PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. e0248509
Author(s):  
Kaitlyn E. Johnson ◽  
Madison Stoddard ◽  
Ryan P. Nolan ◽  
Douglas E. White ◽  
Natasha S. Hochberg ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Well Being ◽  
The United States ◽  
Contact Tracing ◽  
Epidemiological Modeling ◽  
Disease Clusters ◽  
Student Safety ◽  
The Face ◽  
K 12 ◽  
Access To Food

As the world grapples with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, a particularly thorny set of questions surrounds the reopening of primary and secondary (K-12) schools. The benefits of in-person learning are numerous, in terms of education quality, mental health, emotional well-being, equity and access to food and shelter. Early reports suggested that children might have reduced susceptibility to COVID-19, and children have been shown to experience fewer complications than older adults. Over the past few months, our understanding of COVID-19 has been further shaped by emerging data, and it is now understood that children are as susceptible to infection as adults and have a similar viral load during infection, even if asymptomatic. Based on this updated understanding of the disease, we have used epidemiological modeling to explore the feasibility and consequences of school reopening in the face of differing rates of COVID-19 prevalence and transmission. We focused our analysis on the United States, but the results are applicable to other countries as well. We demonstrate the potential for a large discrepancy between detected cases and true infections in schools due to the combination of high asymptomatic rates in children coupled with delays in seeking testing and receiving results from diagnostic tests. Our findings indicate that, regardless of the initial prevalence of the disease, and in the absence of robust surveillance testing and contact-tracing, most schools in the United States can expect to remain open for 20–60 days without the emergence of sizeable disease clusters. At this point, even if schools choose to close after outbreaks occur, COVID-19 cases will be seeded from these school clusters and amplified into the community. Thus, our findings suggest that the debate between the risks to student safety and benefits of in-person learning frames a false dual choice. Reopening schools without surveillance testing and contact tracing measures in place will lead to spread within the schools and within the communities that eventually forces a return to remote learning and leaves a trail of infection in its wake.

scholarly journals Building the Science: Current Studies on the Impact of Arts Engagement on the Health of Older Adults

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 643-643
Author(s):  
Marie Bernard ◽  
Sunil Iyengar
Keyword(s):  
Healthy Aging ◽  
Task Force ◽  
Well Being ◽  
National Endowment ◽  
National Academy Of Sciences ◽  
Department Of Health ◽  
The Arts ◽  
Arts Engagement ◽  
Academy Of Sciences ◽  
The Impact

Abstract Nearly a decade ago, a federal interagency task force on the arts and human development was launched as the result of a research summit held by the National Endowment for the Arts and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to investigate the arts’ relationships to health and well-being across the lifespan. Soon afterward, the National Institute on Aging partnered with the Arts Endowment and the National Academy of Sciences to identify research recommendations to benefit healthy aging and the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases in older-adult populations. While this session will revisit some of those findings, it also will share more recent advances in biomedical and behavioral research being conducted by a growing network of “Sound Health” researchers at the nexus of neuroscience, music, and health==with direct implications for the future of research on the arts and aging.

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