Screening Models

Below are three different screening models ranging from the least time and resource intensive to the most.

Location of Screening SBHC Space

If you need private areas for confidential discussions or exams, consider how other space in your clinic might be re-purposed in addition to the exam rooms (such as offices, conference rooms, or lab areas) in order to increase your capacity for seeing multiple patients at once.

Don’t forget to consider spatial logistics and potentials for bottlenecks in your flow, such as only having one bathroom in your clinic if your goal is to collect urine samples for STI screening on multiple students in a short period of time.

Timing of Screening Program Duration

Once you have determined the group and approximate numbers of students you intend to screen, create a detailed and realistic schedule for your screening event, including checking in students, onsite health education, measurements, surveys, additional testing you will include, and any face-to-face time with a provider.

This should result in an estimate of the staffing you will need and the number of students you can feasibly screen in one class period. Then estimate the number of class periods it will take to complete screening for your population of choice.

This information is adapted from the Population-Wide Screenings in Schools Guide: A publication of UCSF and Family Health Together. We are grateful to our partners at ETR for funding and the UCSF School of Nursing for creating this content: Naomi Schapiro, RN, PhD, CPNP; Emily Green, RN, PhD; Victoria F. Keeton, PhD, RN, CPNP-PC; and Ivette Gutierrez, M.A.

We would also like to acknowledge Alameda County Center for Healthy Schools and Communities, Oakland Unified School District, La Clínica de la Raza, Native American Health Center, Lifelong Medical, Karen Gersten-Rothenberg, and Joanna Bauer for their contributions to this toolkit.

Photo credit: Randall Ann Homan