With it now being three years since the pandemic began, the goal to keep your school healthy is still just as important. Not only does COVID continue to infect, but seasonal sicknesses such as colds and the flu continue to spread yearly. To help your students and teachers stay healthy and protect the immunocompromised, here are some thoughts to keep your school healthy regardless of the sickness or time of year.
Address high “touch point” areas
Germs can live for days or weeks on dry surfaces. Places where multiple students touch throughout the day, such as door handles, garbage slides, or tables, can contribute to high infection rates. Your best way to avoid getting sick from touching these surfaces is not to touch with your hands in the first place. Add attachments to doors to open with an arm or foot rather than a hand. As not every surface can be circumnavigated in this way, ensure hand sanitizer is in the area to help kill germs on the hands after they finish their tasks.
Provide accessible sanitary materials
One of the biggest deterrents to people not following the rules is confusion or being inconvenient to follow. If you’d like students to follow sanitary guidelines, always have the tools accessible and easy to use. That’s making sure there’s always soap in the bathroom and products like hand sanitizer and tissues are easily accessible. You may also provide disposable face masks for anyone feeling sick, which can help prevent the spread of airborne diseases.
Ensure students are Using safe practices
Even purchasing all the PPE products in the world won’t do anything unless students practice proper hygiene. Coughing and sneezing into their arm, washing hands with soap and warm water, and other practices are all things that will prevent sickness from spreading. You want to make sure the soap and other supplies you’re purchasing are high-quality, but everyone needs to do what they can to protect themselves and each other by staying healthy.
This also includes fostering an environment of taking care of themselves. If a student comes to school sick, whether to not miss class or after-school activities, that will ruin the whole point of preventing the spread of sickness. Make sure your messaging to rest as needed is taken to heart by students and faculty alike, and they stay home when not feeling well.
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We’ve heard these concepts since we were young, but they need to be emphasized nonetheless to prevent the spread of sickness. When we all work together to make healthy choices, we help keep everyone healthier, which means less time missed at school and work and more time spent doing the things we want to do. Let’s do the small things today to make things easier for us tomorrow.
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Hillyard
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Quill
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School Health Corp
When you choose School Health as your health supplies provider, you get a business partner who will help you every step of the way - from product selection and support, to training and customer care. Ever since our founding in 1957, we have been dedicated to helping school-based health professionals keep their students healthy, both physically and mentally.