FOR RELEASE: Wednesday, August 16, 2006
State Official Gives School Nurses Data, Encouragement to Be Children's Advocates
Kathleen Barta, UA associate professor of nursing, from left, Darlene Cheatham, continuing education coordinator for AHEC-NW, Dr. Joseph Bates, deputy state public health officer, Marianne Neighbors, UA professor of nursing, and Dr. Robert Gullett Jr., executive director of AHEC-NW, pause during a break in the institute.
Dr. Joseph Bates, a state health official, recruited more than 100 allies Aug. 2 for his mission to improve the health of Arkansans.
Bates presented information during his keynote address to the sixth annual School Nurse Summer Institute to show the school nurses how much influence they can have over the health of Arkansas residents through their work with schoolchildren and their families. "Advocating for Children's Health: the School Nurse's Role" was the theme of the three-day institute organized by the Eleanor Mann School of Nursing at the University of Arkansas and the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences Area Health Education Center-Northwest. The institute was held at AHEC-NW facilities in Fayetteville.
"You may underestimate your potential to influence the health of people in the state," Bates told the more than 100 school nurses from across the state. He serves as deputy state public health officer and chief science officer in the state Division of Health and is also on the faculty of the Fay W. Boozman College of Public Health at UAMS in Little Rock.
"Arkansas is one on the least healthy states, and I find people who accept that," Bates said. "I don't. I am on a crusade to improve the health of our state, and that begins in childhood. That's why you are so important."
– Valerie Colburn explained at this year's School Nurse Summer Institute how she put into action last year's information about using data to improve school health care.
"We built a new junior high, and one grade was pulled from the high school," explained Colburn, a nurse in the Pea Ridge School District. "Last year, the institute taught us how to use data, and in this case I pulled information together to justify the need for another nurse. I petitioned the school board and was allowed to hire an LPN because of the number of students, including the concentration of higher risk students with medical conditions such as diabetes and seizure disorders, who would be at that school. I was able to show we needed another nurse on that campus full time."
Bates urged the school nurses to help influence policymakers, from school principals to state legislators, about health issues that affect children.
"Make sure you are right about what you take a position on, be factual, have data, and then propose a reasonable, doable solution," Bates said. "Keep after it. You are a very powerful force."
Bates provided data, showing the school nurses Arkansas' statistics on health indicators such as low birth weight, infant mortality, child deaths, teens giving birth and children in poverty – rates that were above the national averages. The state's overall ranking has been no higher than 45 in the past several years, he said.
"We are bouncing around at the bottom, and we can do a lot better," Bates said.
He pointed out that after a child's first year of life, when birth defects are the most common cause of death, unintentional injuries can be blamed for the majority of deaths among children. And Bates made a point of saying he distinguishes between accidents and unintentional injuries.
"These are not accidents in that they are injuries that are preventable if we change behaviors," he said. "We don't need special medicines or special surgeries or more health insurance to decrease these deaths."
He cited such causes as firearms, drowning, suffocation, poisoning, fire and motor vehicle accidents, including those involving all-terrain vehicles. Children under 16 account for 35 percent of deaths involving ATVs, Bates said.
He displayed recommendations concerning ATVs made in 2000 by the American Academy of Pediatrics. Injuries and deaths could be reduced through education about wearing helmets and protective clothing and eyewear, through engineering so that ATVs would have seat belts, roll bars and speed governors, and through legislation that more closely regulates ATV use.
Money is not always the solution in addressing the state's health concerns, Bates said. On the infant mortality rate, Arkansas ranks only above Cuba among developed nations, he said.
"Cuba spends a fraction of the money that we do," he said, later noting that all children in Arkansas have access to health care through the ARKids First insurance program. "We can't buy our way out of the problem."
A lack of understanding about the importance of prenatal care contributes significantly to that high infant mortality rate, Bates said, and he expressed confidence that school nurses could help reverse trends by educating students about the issue and others such as smoking.
He also displayed a table of body mass index results, the measurement of which became school nurses' responsibility following legislative action.
"This generation of children will not live as long as their parents," Bates said. "This is the first time that has happened in the history of the country."
While some school administrators don't want to lose academic time to physical activity, data show that children who exercise do better academically than those who don't exercise, Bates said.
"I hope you will be a strong advocate of exercise," the doctor told the school nurses. "Exercise ought to be like brushing your teeth – something you do every day."
There may be a long way to go, Bates said, but he encouraged the school nurses to reach for the low-hanging fruit where advances can be made.
"Now, you're armed," he said.
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Contact:
Heidi Stambuck, director of communications
College of Education and Health Professions
(479) 575-3138, stambuck@uark.edu