Working in the field of education provides all kinds of wonderful opportunities to improve people’s lives – and those are not limited to what they can learn directly through their studies. In a role such as this, you also have the potential to be a health leader, protecting students from illness, helping them to cope with chronic health issues and providing them with the support they need to improve and maintain their physical and mental health as they move through life. Simple interventions in this context, when they are more receptive to ideas than they will ever be again, can improve their chances of living long, healthy lives. It’s worth making this a priority.
Awareness of the issues
What are the most common health issues that your students face? This is something you’ll need to consider before you begin. It’s important to do your research because demonstrating that you are well-informed is important to gain your students’ trust at the outset. If there is a nurse or medical center attached to your workplace, that’s a good place to start. Your local department of public health can also help, and you can even talk to your own doctor to help establish priorities. Don’t forget to listen to the students themselves and ask them what they’re concerned about. You can then work on improving your own understanding of specific issues before deciding how to address them.
An inclusive approach
If you’re going to make progress in improving your students’ health, it’s important to recognize that everyone isn’t starting from the same place. They will all have different habits and varying levels of health and fitness. They will have family histories that will affect their health risks and may make some forms of exercise inadvisable. Some of them may have allergies, chronic illnesses or even disabilities. These conditions may or may not be immediately visible.
If your aim is to make a positive difference in your students’ lives, you won’t want to inadvertently discourage any students by making them feel excluded. You also won’t want to put them in a position where they’re forced to declare medical issues that they would rather keep private. For this reason, health-focused initiatives should always be about providing encouragement rather than creating requirements; wherever possible, any requirements should be flexible.
For instance, rather than taking all your students on a 300-meter run, you could suggest that they all set a goal of doing something sporty, which could be anything from swimming or cycling that distance to bouncing a ball up and down or doing stretches with breaks as needed.
A healthier educational environment
If you’ve been considering pursuing an EdD vs PhD degree for the next step in your career, you might find it useful to compare the courses offered by Marymount University. One thing to determine is which would be better suited to improving the educational environment.
As an EdD graduate, you’d be directly involved in making decisions within a specific school, college or other educational institution. As a PhD graduate, you wouldn’t be making decisions directly but would be informing other people across a greater number of establishments. Either way, it would be your job to think about entire institutions and how their policies influence the health of their students – everything from access to fresh air to the provision of secure bike storage areas to encourage cycling and support for sporting activities. A lot of what can be done to support good health is not about specific initiatives on the ground but is about ensuring that the learning environment itself is a healthy place and doesn’t create health problems.
Reducing infection risk for students
With the ongoing threat from Covid-19, the growing risk of H5N1 flu outbreaks and many other respiratory diseases out there, infection control in the classroom should be a priority. Infections such as these are dangerous to students with weakened immune systems, and everybody is at risk of long Covid even if the initial infection is mild. Even minor infections can interfere with students’ ability to focus during class.
One of the best things you can do is to open windows where possible and make sure there’s a good quality, up-to-date air filtration system in operation. Space out seating where possible. Encourage students who have symptoms of Covid or flu to get tested and stay home in the meantime. Ensure that students feel supported if they choose to wear masks and that no bullying occurs as a result.
Additionally, you can talk to your local public health authorities to see if your school can get involved in promoting vaccination programs or even have some vaccines administered on-site. Keep in touch with them to access the latest information on safety protocols and find out if there are posters or information leaflets you can use.
Supporting proper hydration
Some aspects of keeping students healthy begin in the classroom. Traditionally, students have been banned from drinking in class, but we now know that being able to take sips of water or fruit juice at regular intervals has significant benefits for concentration, improving student focus and consequently helping them learn. This will also help them establish good habits for life beyond the classroom.
This will mean that you’ll need to be a bit more lenient about bathroom breaks, but if students know they can go when they need to, it will be less disruptive overall. It will also have the added benefit of letting those who are menstruating slip away without attracting as much attention when they do so. As better hydration improves overall health, you may find that there are more missed minutes, but fewer missed days.
Supporting healthy eating
Making sure that your students are eating healthily at school is trickier, but there are things you can do. Try to keep companies that sell food and soda high in sugars and saturated fats out of your institution. Push for fruits and vegetables to be made available in the cafeteria, keeping in mind that it must remain affordable to students who may be struggling, and ensure a variety of snacks and drinks are available in vending machines. Have water coolers or water fountains installed so that students don’t need to rely on canned or bottled drinks, which are more likely to be sugary?
Bear in mind your own position as a role model, and let your students see you drinking water or snacking on fruit. Avoid praising students who lose weight. This can be just as damaging as mocking students who are fat and can exacerbate eating disorders. It’s also possible that the weight loss is unwanted and has been caused by an illness you don’t know about. The focus should be on health, not what their bodies look like.
Making exercise enjoyable
One of the best things you can do for your students is encourage them to be more active. The key to doing this successfully is recognizing that different things motivate different people. Competitive sports can be a great driver, but for those who know they’ll never make the grade, it can send the wrong message, and cause them avoid activities they might otherwise enjoy.
Some people get great benefits from playing in teams, while others find it more satisfying to challenge themselves in solo efforts. Some love getting outdoors, but those who don’t are not necessarily uninterested in exercise as they may enjoy indoor activities such as ping pong or gymnastics.
Exercise doesn’t need to take the form of traditional sports at all. Dancing or playing physical games where the focus is on fun can be just as effective in boosting fitness. Some students just need the right motivation. Sponsored events are a great way to encourage them and raise money for good causes at the same time.
Supporting chronically ill students
For some students, managing health concerns requires a significant amount of attention every day. It’s a rare school that doesn’t have students affected by asthma or diabetes, and there are any number of other conditions which may limit students’ activities or require them to take medication during the day. You can do a lot to support their health simply by acknowledging these requirements and helping them to do what they need to do as quickly and straightforwardly as possible, with adequate privacy.
In some cases, students may need assistance from a nurse to administer treatments. In others, teachers may need to be ready to step in if they become acutely ill, for instance, when an EpiPen needs to be used in the event of a severe allergic reaction. It’s important that everybody has the proper training to make this possible. Additional training may also be needed to ensure that students with physical disabilities get the support they need. For instance, even if they can look after themselves day to day, they may need a designated person to help them evacuate in the event of a fire.
Promoting mental health awareness
While most people realize that it’s important to support good physical health, mental health is often overlooked, especially in young people. Yet, a significant proportion of students suffer from depression or anxiety. Other mental illnesses can also occur in youth, even if they’re rarer, and young people often find it harder to cope if they’re neurodivergent, simply because they haven’t had time to acquire the necessary coping skills in a society that tends to overlook their needs. You can do a lot to help people in this situation simply by raising awareness and encouraging empathy in other students and coming down hard on bullying.
Be careful not to punish students too harshly for forms of acting out which may not be under their control and try to ensure that there’s a quiet space that they can retreat to if necessary. Let students know that you will never think less of them if they’re struggling like this and that if they ask for help, you will do your best to make arrangements that meet their needs.
The importance of keeping confidence
Successfully promoting health depends first and foremost on earning the respect and trust of your students, so it is vital that they know that any health information they share with you will go no further without their explicit consent.
If you’re worried that a student is at risk of suicide, call 988 for professional advice on what to do. Without professional training as a counselor, you should be cautious about what you say to worried students but focus on simply being there to listen and, where possible, to provide or organize practical assistance. Be careful not to make promises that you may be unable to keep.
Know your limits
When promoting good health, it’s important to recognize that there are limits to your knowledge. Even doctors don’t assume that they know everything, because new knowledge emerges all the time, and it takes a lot of effort to keep up with it. As this is the case, you shouldn’t overreach yourself, or you risk doing more harm than good.
Try to base what you do on advice from expert sources such as your local public health department and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). If students ask you for advice and you’re not qualified to give it, refer them to somebody who is. It’s useful to keep an updated list of contacts in key areas who can help when you’re out of your depth. Make sure your students know that while you’re keen to help, you’re not an expert.
With the right preparation and planning, you can make a significant contribution to creating a healthier environment for your students. You can give them the support they need to live as healthily as possible and the information they need to look after themselves far into the future.
