Remember when you were little and you fell in the schoolyard and bruised your knee? No doubt, a school nurse dried your tears and bandaged you up. That same school nurse also checked your vision and-for some of us who are older-administered our polio vaccine.

Today, school nurses still apply bandages and check vision, but their roles have expanded significantly. Many operate what amounts to one-nurse clinics at their schools while others team up to provide programs to meet all types and complexities of the health needs of the children they serve (and sometimes those of their families, too). Working together on a national level, the National Association of School Nurses recently received a grant from the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to create the School Nurse Asthma Management Program.

Some great examples of what school nurses do were seen in the finalists of our NurseWeek Nursing Excellence Awards in October. Tammy Gore of Louisiana showed us the holistic approach of many school nurses, Laura Melotte from El Paso emphasized the special needs of children and families from different cultures and Pamelia Butler of Tulsa demonstrated the creativity of school nurses with her "Health Alert" television series.

Jan. 23 is National School Nurse Day. According to the National Association of School Nurses, the purpose of the day is to celebrate the contributions of school nurses toward improving the health of children and to foster a better understanding of the expanded school nurse role.

The theme chosen for this year is "Partners With Children," but it seems to me that those of us who are not school nurses should tweak the slogan just a little and figure out ways to make our theme "Partners With School Nurses." Unlike nurses who work in hospitals and large health care facilities, school nurses often do not have a large professional support system of other nurses working next to them. What if each hospital or nursing unit "adopted" a school nurse or a group of school nurses?

The school nurses could be invited to the hospital's continuing education classes for nurses, have access to the hospital library and clinical reference information systems, be given an opportunity to bring their students in for tours or be invited to lunch just to share nursing stories.

At a minimum, we can take a few minutes this week to encourage the parents and schools in our neighborhoods to recognize the contributions of school nurses Jan. 23 and to commit to forming a deeper relationship with our school nurse colleagues. The potential for what we could accomplish together is enormous and the benefits to our children and communities unlimited.