Healthy Schools
Le Bonheur Children's Healthy Schools department partners with schools to teach good health habits to children and teens. The program is based on the school-health model advocated by the Centers of Disease Control. The department collaborates with local community partners to provide new and innovative programs inside the schools. Through the Healthy Schools program, Le Bonheur serves as a resource to schools in Tipton County, Tennessee. Healthy Schools supports the efforts of the school district in the implementation of a coordinated school health approach that links good health, behavior and achievement for all children. Healthy Schools promotes healthier lifestyles among children and their families in an effort to develop healthier communities.
Le Bonheur Children’s has had a partnership with Tipton County Schools to provide nurses since 2000. The school system has special programs for students as young as three years old, which increases the need for the nurse to handle those complex conditions.
The school nurses:
- Care for sick and injured students
- Provide physician-ordered medical treatments, procedures and medications.
- Attend Individualized Education Plan (IEP) meetings for students with medical diagnoses
- Work with Truancy Prevention team
- Audit immunization records and contact parents for delinquencies
- Provide education to staff and students-hand washing, dental hygiene, heart health, nutrition, CPR and First Aid
- Provide annual flu vaccine to staff
- Participate in Healthy School teams at individual schools
The Healthy Schools department also offers a unique experience with our mobile unit Mission: Good Health Our mobile education unit visits schools, and as an interactive high-tech experience for children, kids can act the part of "secret agents in training" by uncovering clues to a healthy lifestyle. The purpose of Mission: Good Health is to provide students in grades K, 2, 4 and 6 with a fun, interactive learning experience that will enable them to mae positive health choices now and in the future. Each child will complete a Mission: Good Health activity book, which follows the Tennessee Department of Education's K-8 Healthful Living Standards, prior to visiting the mobile unit. As they carry out their health mission, children learn about hygiene, safety and heart health. In the process, their vision, blood pressure, height and weight are checked.
Learn 2-B Healthy Obesity Prevention
Le Bonheur Healthy Schools Department is teaching an obesity prevention program called Learn 2-B Healthy. The program targets fourth grade students at Munford Elementary School and Brighton Elementary School. The students are given pre-health screenings at the beginning of the school year, which included blood pressure, height, weight, body mass index, cholesterol and glucose. A Le Bonheur Health Educator teaches in each classroom once a week and follows the Eat Well and Keep Moving curriculum, which teaches about nutrition, physical activity and limiting computer and television time. In addition to the classroom teaching, the school nurse at Munford Elementary reinforces the students’ healthy eating habits by offering taste testing of healthy snacks and by having the students earn healthy eating points. She visits them in the cafeteria to monitor healthy food choices, and works with the PE teachers to monitor physical activity and encourage the students to keep moving.
Other events throughout the year, like a family fun night and field day, teach kids and their families how to make better eating and activity choices.
For more information on Healthy Schools or the Learn 2B Healthy program, call (901) 837-5610.
Healthy Schools Resources
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Posted: October 17, 2008
For more information please contact:
Amy McLean
, 731.984.9953
