General Infection Control Prevention Guidelines for K-12 Schools (Enduring)

General Infection Control Prevention Guidelines for K-12 Schools [Enduring] is organized by National Association of School Nurses (NASN).

Release Date: 12/02/2024
Expiration Date: 12/02/2026

Description:
According to the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (2020), schools and school nurses are an important part of the infrastructure of communities as they provide safe, supportive learning environments for students and enable parents and caregivers to be at work. Schools and school nurses also provide critical services that help to mitigate health disparities, such as school lunch programs, and social, physical, behavioral, and mental health services (Donohue & Miller, 2020). The COVID-19 pandemic brought emergency preparedness and response to the forefront of the educational system. During the pandemic, schools implemented a variety of prevention strategies (for example, mask use) to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 (Science Brief, 2021). Many of these same prevention strategies can help prevent the spread of other infectious diseases, such as influenza (Uyeki et al., 2021), respiratory syncytial virus, and norovirus, and support healthy learning environments for all. As the nation shifts from response to recovery, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has an opportunity to use what they’ve learned from schools about what is needed to protect classrooms and communities from future health threats. This session highlights efforts led by CDC to develop general infection control prevention guidelines that can be used by school nurses in K-12 schools.

Learning Outcomes
As a result of participating in this educational activity, learners will be able to:

• Articulate 3 reasons why it is important to keep schools open during future public health threats.
• Describe everyday prevention actions that should be implemented in schools at all times to prevent a variety of infectious diseases.
• Describe prevention strategies reserved for emerging public health threats or outbreaks within the school.