Page 86 - MMP-N-NJ CCN 21st Century School Nurse Leadership Book

Steps to Gaining Buy-in and Leading Change and Transformation (Kotter, 2007).
See Making Change Happen (p.11):

1. Establish sense of urgency.

• Motivating statement (often communicated to key school administrative
decision maker(s)):

Dear Mr./Ms. Administrator:

As our school health leader, I am interested in helping our district better
understand some of the supports and barriers to healthy living and healthy
lifestyles. For example, in 2016 more than half of the adult population was
overweight or obese. In our county 31.7% of our children between ages 10-17
are overweight or obese (The State of Obesity, 2016). These children become
overweight and obese adults who then are at risk for hypertension, heart
disease, arthritis, and obesity related cancers.
But, this is more than about obesity, this is about building a culture of health
in our community. We need to know what healthy living and healthy lifestyles
mean to our community. The research supports healthy lifestyle interventions
that involve school nurses are effective (Schroeder, Travers, & Smaldone,
2016). Healthy students are better learners (Basch, 2011).

I know health and healthy living is a complex issue. I want to contribute to
the body of evidence our school creates to inform our decisions about future
interventions to improve the health of our school children and our school
community. I would like to start a community cafe – an informal gathering
of parents in our school. There are resources available to begin a community
café through a local school district in Camden, NJ, which has already used
the program with great success. I would like to begin developing a group of
partners who we can work with to help us combat this issue here in our own
community.

• Examine the literature and community assessment. In addition, the following areas
related to this are:

School Community Health Problem/Needs Assessment:
• Obtain district and school-based obesity data, need benchmark.
• Start here for data: Obtain county and community local health assessment data at New
Jersey State Health Assessment Data
(https://www26.state.nj.us/doh-shad/home/Welcome.html)
• See Essex County Community Health Improvement Plan (CHIP) Example
(http://www.uhnj.org/patients/docs/UH_CHNA-2014.pdf)
• Identify available resources that may already have templates, guides, resources.

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