The Coronavirus Disease 2019 Pandemic and Mental Health-Related School-Nurse Visits in United States Schools.

OBJECTIVE: No studies have examined school-nurse visits related to mental health (MH) during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. We examined changes in the rate of MH-related school-nurse visits before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS: We analyzed school-nurse visit data (n = 3,445,240) for subjects Grade K-12 in US public schools using electronic health record software (SchoolCare, Ramsey, NJ). Data between January 1 and December 31 in 2019 (pre-COVID-19 pandemic) versus January 1 to December 31 in 2020 (during COVID-19 pandemic) were compared. For each year, total visits to a school-nurse were calculated for general MH, anxiety, and self-harm. The exposure was number of school-nurse visits in each time period (2019 vs 2020). The main outcome was change in the rate of general MH, anxiety, and self-harm visits in 2019 versus 2020. RESULTS: There were 2,302,239 total school-nurse visits in 2019 versus 1,143,001 in 2020. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the rate of visits for general MH increased by 30% (4.7-6.1 per 10,000 visits, 95% confidence interval [CI] {18%, 43%}; P < .001), and visits for anxiety increased by 25% (24.8-31 per 10,000 visits, 95% CI [20%,30%]; P < .001). There was no significant difference in self-harm visits across all ages during the COVID-19 pandemic. CONCLUSIONS: Our study found a significant increase in the rate of school-nurse visits for MH and anxiety during the COVID-19 pandemic, suggesting the pediatric population is at-risk for increased negative MH-effects associated with the pandemic and highlights a critical role of school-nurses in identifying youth with potential MH-needs.

Reflections on social work education during the COVID-19 pandemic: Experiences of faculty members and lessons moving forward

This focused ethnography examines the experiences of social work faculty members during the COVID-19 pandemic. Throughout the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, we conducted participant observations of the pivot to distance learning, research and service, and overall responses of the social work community at a Research 1, public university. This article focuses on in-depth, zoom-recorded, individual interviews with 16 social work faculty members during the first year of the pandemic with follow-up communications 1 year later (n = 9). They characterized the pandemic as pervasive, sustained, isolating, changing, embedded within a deeply divided sociocultural context, and having a disparate impact related to faculty members? positionality. Many described feelings of disorientation, anxiety, fear, loss, grief, fatigue, and strained relationships. Faculty members also described a strengthening of social work?s resiliency through innovative technology, embracing new opportunities to enact professional values of social and racial justice, and meaning making. They consider building on this resiliency moving forward, including in the face of future long emergencies. Their reflections on lessons learned during the COVID-19 pandemic suggest how we may become more resilient by tending to our collective trauma, balancing the benefits of online education with psychosocial needs, and examining how social work ethics interact with academic systems.