GREENSBORO, N.C., May 6, 2015 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Prophecy Healthcare®, Inc., in honor of National School Nurse Day, today launches new online, validated competency tests for the specialty practice of School Nursing. Healthcare staffing organizations gain approved, reliable, validated pre-hire tests to assess the quality of school nurse applicants prior to placing them in our nation's schools.
"Health providers in the School Nurse position play a vital role in keeping students in the classroom ready to learn," commented Leslie Jeffries MSN RN BSN Senior Vice President of Clinical Operations. "From educating student and families on healthy lifestyle choices and management of chronic diseases, School Nurses focus not only on prevention, but overall wellbeing of students. Evaluating and updating knowledge in this specialty nursing position is continually necessary for health and safety of students."
In partnership with RCM Health Care Services of New York, NY, Prophecy's new School RN Assessments were developed by a panel of school RN subject matter experts with over 40 years of combined experience working in this important specialty.
"Our school nursing supervisors, school nurses and staff were honored to play a part in ensuring that the exams will validate that nurses in the schools are equipped with the necessary tools to improve the safety, health, and academic success of all students under their care," said Marc Chafetz, Vice President, RCM Health Care Services.
During the content validation study for the School RN Assessment, a comprehensive list of job duties performed by School RNs were identified, in addition to an aggregation of over 55 individual knowledges, skills, and abilities required in order to perform this role competently, safely, and proficiently.
Kimara Leveille, Clinical School Nurse Supervisor, RCM Health Care Services reflected on the collaboration saying, "My team of school nursing professionals and I found the workshop to be a beneficial and rewarding experience. We enjoyed the opportunity to share our expertise with the professionals from the Prophecy team."
Quality school health services demand school nursing skills and practices based on the strongest scientific evidence. School Nurses provide a wide range of health services to a variety of students between the ages of 2 and 18. Some of these services include dealing with both acute and chronic health conditions, supervising the care for students with life-threatening health conditions, administering medications, and providing nursing care for common illnesses seen throughout the school setting. They must be alert to signs and symptoms of possible communicable disease outbreaks in the school setting and serve as a liaison between the school, the home, and medical or other community resources.
Prophecy's new School RN Assessments have been created to assess the RN's competence in several knowledge domains, including but not limited to:
- Complex Health Issues
- Health Appraisal
- Health Problems and Nursing Management
- Health Promotion and Disease Prevention
- Professional Issues
"We at RCM Health Care Services are very proud to have been able to collaborate with The Prophecy Validation Experts in this important effort to ensure that proper competency exams for school nurses will exist going forward," commented Michael Saks, Senior Vice President, RCM Health Care Services.
Developed using scientific-based evidence and a formal validation process, Prophecy clients can confidently use the School RN assessments in the pre-hire decision making capacity as they comply with all Department of Labor Guidelines on Employee Selection Procedures (1978), EEOC standards and the OFCCP.
About Prophecy Healthcare®
Originally founded in 2004 as NurseTesting.com, Prophecy Healthcare® got its start as the first online Pre-Employment Testing Company exclusive to the Healthcare Industry. Initially focusing solely on clinical assessments measuring clinical competencies, efforts to exceed industry expectations led to isolating critical competencies missed in traditional testing initiatives, such as stress tolerance, critical thinking, and teamwork skills. The Prophecy approach offers the ability to find candidates with the clinical hard skills, personality attributes, and desired soft skills to match each organization. For more information about Prophecy, visit http://www.prophecyhealth.com or call 336.802.1070.
About RCM Health Care Services
RCM Health Care Services, a division of RCM Technologies, established in 1975 is one of the leading health care staffing companies in the USA. RCM provides exceptional health care personnel to hundreds of facilities across the country. RCM has provided competent, high-quality healthcare that is a priority for the demanding daily operations of our school districts for nearly three decades. RCM is the leading provider of nursing services to school districts and currently provides care to over 1000 children in 35 school districts across the nation, including four of the top ten largest school districts in the country. For more information, visit http://www.rcmhealthcare.com/.