Award Date

5-1-2013

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science in Nursing (MSN)

Department

Nursing

First Committee Member

Nancy Menzel

Second Committee Member

Janelle Willis

Third Committee Member

Lori Candela

Fourth Committee Member

Christopher Cochran

Number of Pages

62

Abstract

Children from low-income families are known to struggle academically, but lack of health services may also impact their education. School nurses must identify and manage health problems in the school-age child to improve academic success. Unfortunately, the school nurse-to-student ratio may limit the amount of time nurses can give to the recognition of health problems and appropriate follow-up. The Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 provides Title 1 funding to schools whose enrollment includes at least 40% of low-income families. These federal funds are intended to be used to bridge the achievement gap between low-income students and other students. It was hypothesized that Title 1 schools are more susceptible to increased nursing service demand due to the academic and health disparities among low-income students. This cross-sectional correlational study sought to determine whether there were significantly more special education physical assessments, referrals (vision, dental, hearing, and medical), and occurrences of assisting students with community resources in Title 1 schools as compared to non-Title 1 schools. Results of a one-way MANOVA found significant positive relationships between the school type (Title 1, non-Title 1) and physical assessment, referrals, and accessing resources. Title 1 schools reported significantly greater nursing demand as compared to non-Title 1 schools. The survey results support prior research findings that there are more health disparities and academic difficulties among the poor. School nurses are better able to identify and assist these students if staff assignments take into consideration the increased nursing demand in Title 1 schools.

Keywords

Low-income children; Low-income students; Nursing demand; Poor – Medical care; Poor children; Poverty; School nurse; School nursing; Title 1 schools

Disciplines

Education | Nursing | Public Health

File Format

pdf

Degree Grantor

University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Language

English

Rights

IN COPYRIGHT. For more information about this rights statement, please visit http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

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