Why These School Nurses Love SHR Software

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Rachel Kauffman
February 28, 2024
Blog, Student Health
5 Minute Read

Why These School Nurses Love SHR Software

We live in a technologically advanced society — so why are so many schools relying on outdated health processes? With robust features and enhanced data privacy and security, student health record (SHR) software provides a modern solution for today’s school health offices.  

The Calhoun School (New York, NY) and Atlanta International School (Atlanta, GA) adopted Magnus Health to streamline student health management. Read this blog to learn how their school nurses benefit from electronic health records.  

Paperless Health Office 

One of the biggest benefits of moving to an SHR is the ability to go paperless. School health offices keep records for every student at their school, often holding onto them long after the child leaves campus. While paper records take up physical space and can easily get disorganized or lost, a paperless system is easy to search through and offers heightened security for protected health documents.  

Tiffany Holland, RN, experienced this challenge at Atlanta International School. Students’ health records were maintained via paper files and kept in storage after the child graduated or transferred. Health staff struggled with knowing where to store the files, how to keep them safe, and how long to store them for. They realized an electronic SHR would streamline not only the storage of their health information but their ability to document, communicate, and remain compliant. 

Prior to working at The Calhoun School, Lisa Moldowsky, RN worked at a different school that utilized paper health files. Whenever a child transferred or moved from the middle school to upper school, their files needed to move with them and be kept in storage.  

“When I joined Calhoun, I realized everything was just at the touch of my fingers in two seconds [in Magnus Health],” says Moldowsky. “With a click I could find out anything I wanted to. I don’t have one piece of paper or file in my office — I don’t even pick up a pen during my day.” 

Easier Collaboration and Consistency 

An electronic SHR platform makes it easy to share notes and collaborate on student health outside of the health office. Nurses aren’t the only ones who care for students — athletic trainers, counselors, and teachers can also benefit from student health records. 

At Atlanta International School, there are two school nurses and an athletic trainer who use Magnus Health daily. They also have several substitute nurses with limited access to the SHR platform. Having everyone in one system has helped the school maintain consistency and improve efficiency with charting and treatment notes.  

Holland uses pre-filled note templates to complete charting for common ailments like a headache or bloody nose. “It saves me from a lot of redo charting and typing the same complaint over and over again,” she says. Shared treatment note templates also ensure that substitute nurses follow the same format with their own charting. 

Similarly, The Calhoun School is housed in two separate buildings. Moldowsky is able to easily collaborate across different departments and maintain continuity of student health records within Magnus Health. The athletic trainer also uses the SHR to track injuries or updates from after-school sporting events. Moldowsky can easily find these notes and trust that she has the most up-to-date student health information at all times, even if she was not present at the athletic event. 

Happier and More Informed Parents 

Communicating with parents is a large part of a school nurse’s job. Without an SHR, information about a child’s health is typically shared via paper notes, phone calls, or insecure email communications. A solution like Magnus Health can streamline this communication with protected messages, automated reminders, and a mobile app for anytime access. 

Parents at The Calhoun School rely on the Magnus Health mobile app to quickly upload photos of health forms and doctors’ notes. During re-enrollment time, the app makes it easy to confirm their child’s information or upload new documents. “It can take just two minutes [to re-enroll],” says Moldowsky. “They can do it whenever they want via the app — they don’t have to be at a desktop.” 

Moldowsky also appreciates that all family communication is shared directly in Magnus Health and documented for future reference. This provides helpful context for parent conversations. 

Families at Atlanta International School are thrilled with their school’s digital health processes. During their first year with Magnus Health, parents told Holland it was “the easiest re-enrollment we’ve ever had.”  

Communication with parents has also improved. Instead of sending a note home with a student and hoping a parent reads it, Holland can share the note directly via Magnus Health and alert parents with an email notification. Automated reminders for immunization forms, sports physicals, or other required paperwork can be sent via email to cut down on health staff’s workload.  

Easier Immunization Compliance 

When it comes to managing student immunizations, paper-based health systems are prone to human error, missing files, or an information breach. SHR software can combat these errors and help schools reach total compliance faster and with less manual effort. 

Holland uses Magnus Health’s smart list feature at the beginning of each school year to identify which students are missing immunizations. She uses this data to send a targeted reminder to specific families and schedule automated email reminders until they reach compliance. Once completed, immunization records are stored directly in Magnus Health to eliminate any shuffling or breach of paperwork. 

Healthier and Safer School Communities 

After several years with Magnus Health, both Moldowsky and Holland cite the SHR as a powerful addition to not only their health office but their entire school community.  

“Everything in Magnus Health is well thought out and all in one place,” says Moldowsky. “It makes my life easier.” Holland also appreciates how intuitive the SHR is. “It’s tailor-made. We don’t have a lot of features that we don’t need or don’t use… It’s so user-friendly.” 

To learn more about how The Calhoun School and Atlanta International School use Magnus Health, watch our on-demand webinar.