A campus nurse or school nurse is a nurse who works for a college, university or school district and uses their knowledge and expertise to educate students about health care and promote better health care standards through lectures, seminars and group events among other promotional activities.
Campus nurses review and create school health care policies, monitor better health care standards, research local trends, create educational material, perform health screenings, provide medical care to students and faculty members and monitor trending health care issues among other community based health care work.
As stated earlier campus nurses also focus on improving education and may participate in student lectures or events in order to educate students about safe sex, proper nutrition and exercise, getting adequate rest, maintaining a healthy lifestyle and managing family health care.
Campus nurses pay a vital role in the health care of the communities and schools they serve.
By educating students and promoting family health campus nurses have the ability to empower their communities and minimize the spread of disease and infections, while helping people lead fitter and healthier lives.
To this extent campus nurses must be self empowered, highly educated, be well-organized, have a strong desire to help others excel in their health, be excellent leaders and communicators and be able to take action on important topics that can affect the health of 100’s or 1,000’s of individuals that depend on them.
Campus nurse responsibilities
Here is a short list of some of the responsibilities campus nurses are in charge of on a daily basis:
- Educate students about their medical condition and provide them with health care advice
- Provide medical care to individuals who are dealing with an injury and/or illness
- Advocate better health care policies and practices to school directors and deans
- Participate in school lectures and programs aimed at providing students with information about sex education, disease prevention, exercise, nutrition and better lifestyle choices
- Review and create school health care policies
- Research local health care trends and report findings to students and staff members in order to minimize health care risks at the school and community level
- Perform regular health screenings for students and staff members
- Create educational material and guides for students and staff members
Without highly trained campus nurse’s schools districts and communities would have a difficult time properly educating students about their health, assisting those in need of medical attention and minimizing potential health care risks.
As schools continue to expand along with the economy the need for qualified, educated campus nurses will also continue to grow leading to more career opportunities for those who either work as campus nurses or are interested in becoming a campus nurse.