Laboratory Testing in the School Setting: Are You CLIA Compliant?

Nurses are qualified to design, manage, supervise, and deliver health care in a public health setting such as the school. Considering this, school nurses should understand regulations necessary to aid in the care of children, especially related to point-of-care laboratory testing for the assessment and treatment of health conditions. The pandemic and resulting mitigation strategy of COVID-19 testing adopted by some schools, has raised questions about the need for school nurses to comply with the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA). CLIA was established to improve the quality of laboratory test results and school nurses who perform blood glucose monitoring and urine dipstick testing fall under the CLIA waiver category. Therefore, school nurses should be knowledgeable about CLIA certification. By developing policies and procedures for testing, completing the CLIA certificate of waiver, and following best laboratory practices, school nurses will be delivering high-quality nursing care in their health room.