p4

               Chronic diseases and conditions are increasing in schools, and school health nurses are often the only resource utilized for some school age children (RWJF, 2016). Evidence based practice could help to eliminate unnecessary exclusions from school, and reduce cost associated with unnecessary follow-ups, and treatments that do not follow EBP guidelines (Sortedahl, 2012). With nurses providing healthcare to many students with chronic health issues, gaps between evidence and practice is not acceptable, and results in less than optimum health and educational outcomes for students, and increases cost to the healthcare system (Sortedahl, 2012).

               The first step to address and possibly resolve the issue of implementing evidence based practice in the school health setting, is to increase the nurses knowledge of how to apply EBP in the clinical setting (Black et al, 2015). Providing training for nurses with simulations of health conditions that mimic common health related school emergencies, and learning how to apply EBP would allow nurse the experience needed for future application of the EBP guidelines (Black et al, 2015). Mentoring programs can be successfully implemented to guide fellow nurses in the school health setting to gain knowledge on how to research and implement EBP in day to day work (Black et al, 2015). Other steps to address issues with implementing EBP in the school health setting is gaining knowledge through conferences, and workshops, which would allow networking with other in the field to improve practice (Black et al, 2015). Another strategy to promote EBP changes is journal clubs, which can integrate current research into practice (Sortedahl, 2012). It has been proposed that online journal clubs provide a communication channel, time, and social system that allows school nurses to discuss application to practice, make decisions, and adopt evidence to improve student outcomes (Sortedahl, 2012).