School nurse

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Kenyan school nurse examining a schoolgirl
School nurse's room in a Japanese elementary school

A school nurse is a nurse who is employed at a school to carry out health education programs there and to provide medication and medical care to students if necessary. In many countries - e.g. In the United States, Great Britain, Scandinavia and Finland - nurses are regularly used in schools.

School nurses in different countries

German-speaking area

Germany

In Germany, school nurses have only recently been reinstated and only in individual cases. One example is the model project “School health workers in public schools in the federal states of Brandenburg and Hesse”. Both federal states worked closely together. The project sponsor and initiator of the innovative approach in the state of Brandenburg has been the AWO Bezirksverband Potsdam eV since 2009. The basis for the implementation was the creation of a feasibility study in project phase I and a "curriculum for qualification measures for qualified health and child / nursing staff to become school health professionals in project phase II .

Project phase III, which ran until the end of 2018, began on November 1, 2016 with the recruitment of ten school health professionals at the AWO district association Potsdam. They looked after 20 schools in nine model regions in the entire state of Brandenburg. Project phase IV will run from January 1, 2019 to December 31, 2020, in which more schools were included in the model project and eight more school health professionals were hired. The project is extensively evaluated, including by the Berlin Charité University Medicine - Institute for Health and Nursing Science and the Leuphana University of Lüneburg.

The model project is also being followed with great interest in other federal states. In the past few years there have been several transnational meetings where experiences from the project were exchanged. Own model projects have already started in Flensburg (Schleswig-Holstein), Mainz (Rhineland-Palatinate), Bremen and Hamburg, and preparations are underway in North Rhine-Westphalia and Berlin.

Austria

The legal basis for the use of nursing staff in school health care in Austria is Article 12 of the Austrian Federal Act on Health and Nursing Professions (Health and Nursing Act - GuKG), amended in 2016 .

In fact, the Austrian schools do not employ their own nursing staff to this day. Occasionally schools cooperate with non-profit associations such as B. MOKI Mobile Kinderkrankenpflege Wien , who send child nurses to schools to train teachers e.g. B. to train in dealing with young diabetics.

Switzerland

In Switzerland school nurses are currently uncommon. One of the few schools that are an exception here is the Lycée Français de Zurich .

Sweden

There are currently around 2500 school nurses working in Sweden, many of them part-time. In addition to extensive and varied other tasks, your area of ​​responsibility also includes the implementation of school vaccination programs. The experiences of Swedish school nurses are particularly well documented in scientific studies.

Finland

School nurses are used in large numbers in Finland. Your tasks are particularly in the area of ​​health care. Every student sees his / her school nurse at least once a year for an individually agreed preventive check-up, which may be a. includes an interview and clinical examination. School nurses also give vaccinations. You can be contacted at all times during class, serve as the first point of contact for minor injuries and acute malaise, advise on sexual issues and give out contraceptives. In addition, school nurses teach students about a healthy lifestyle and about safety in everyday school life.

The school health services are part of the general health service and can be used free of charge. The school nurse's rooms are either located in the school or are part of general medical practices in the neighborhood of the school.

United Kingdom

In the United Kingdom , the NHS public health system employs over 2,600 school nurses. Usually several schools have to share a school nurse. British school nurses provide primary care to injured and acutely ill students; however, their main area of ​​responsibility is the prevention of medical and psychosocial problems and the care of students who suffer from such problems. Often school nurses also give series vaccinations.

United States

History and meaning

In the United States, school nurses have been ( Engl. School nurses in the early 20th century) introduced to the frequent lack of students as a result of infectious diseases such as lice , impetigo and tuberculosis counteract.

There are approximately 45,000 school nurses employed in the United States today. Almost all women work in this profession. Mathematically, there are 1,155 pupils for every school nurse. In reality, however, there are big differences between well-funded school districts, where nurses are employed in all schools, and poor districts, where there are often no school nurses. School nurses are particularly important in the USA because disabled and chronically ill children there are taught integratively in public schools . Also, many children in the USA do not have health insurance , so the school nurse is often the first point of contact if they have health problems.

School nurses are deployed in public and private schools at all school levels. Many private preschool institutions, such as day care centers and preschools , also employ their own nurses.

In the United States, nurses are employed in large numbers not only in schools, but also in the health services of public and private universities and as company nurses in companies and authorities.

tasks

In most schools, students are not allowed to carry medication (e.g. pain relievers) with them. These are then kept and given out by the school nurse.

School nurses provide first aid , perform simple examinations for acutely ill schoolchildren (e.g. an otoscopic examination of the external auditory canal depending on the symptoms ), but do not make any diagnoses , but only provide initial care until the parents or an ambulance service take over the patient.

Another typical task of American school nurses is - in coordination with the attending physician - the safekeeping and distribution of the student's own medication. In many school districts, students are prohibited from carrying medication, even if prescribed by a doctor. For certain medications (e.g. inhalers, which are used in acute asthma attacks, or epinephrines - auto-injectors for allergy sufferers), there are exceptions; however, the use of such drugs must also be registered with the school nurse.

Furthermore, school nurses keep a health-related file for each student and ensure that proof of vaccination and evidence of the annual preventive medical check-up are provided by a resident pediatrician. In-school screenings are not common in the United States.

At primary schools , the school nurse is also responsible for everyday non-medical services that the teachers cannot provide due to workload reasons, such as looking after children who have wet themselves or who have fallen asleep in class. If necessary, they hand out feminine hygiene articles . In high schools, school nurses advise students and others. a. also in matters of contraception .

Employment requirements

The employment requirements for a school nurse are not regulated by law. The National Association of School Nurses , however, recommends the setting prerequisite least a Bachelor Accounts and a school nurse certificate ( School Nurse Certificate ).

literature

  • Janice Selekman: School Nursing: A Comprehensive Text , FA Davis Company, 2006, ISBN 0803614039
  • Andrea Gundolf: Public health in schools is a task of school nurses to strengthen children's and public health . In: Innovations in teaching and education . tape 11 , 2019 ( abstract ).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ School health workers in the state of Brandenburg.
  2. ↑ Consolidated federal law: Entire legal provision for the Health and Nursing Act, version dated January 2nd, 2020, Section 2: Job description and area of ​​competence - Job description, § 12. (5). Retrieved January 2, 2010 .
  3. ^ Ute Brühl: Catching up need for care in school. In: Courier. March 27, 2018, accessed December 30, 2019 .
  4. ↑ MOKI. Accessed December 30, 2019 .
  5. ↑ Do schools need nurses? Accessed December 30, 2019 .
  6. ↑ Infirmary. Accessed December 30, 2019 .
  7. ↑ Gunilla Fagerholt: An overview of the school nursing role in Sweden . In: British Journal of School Nursing . tape 4 , no. 10 , September 27, 2013, doi : 10.12968 / bjsn.2009.4.10.45600 .
  8. ^ School Nurses' Attitudes and Experiences Regarding the Human Papillomavirus Vaccination Program in Sweden. Accessed December 31, 2019 .
  9. ↑ Marie Golsäter, Karin Enskär, Susanne Knutsson: Contributing to making the school a safe place for the child: School nurses' perceptions of their assignment when caring for children having parents with serious physical illness . In: Nursing Open . tape 4 , no. 4 , October 2017, p. 267-273 , doi : 10.1002 / nop2.92 .
  10. ↑ Julia Jönsson, Malin Maltestam, Anita Bengtsson Tops, Pernilla Garmy: School Nurses' Experiences Working With Students With Mental Health Problems. A Qualitative Study . In: Journal of School Nursing . 2019, doi : 10.1177 / 1059840517744019 .
  11. ↑ Eva Clausson, Kerstin Petersson, Agneta Berg: School nurses' view of school children's health and Their Attitudes to document it in the school health record - a pilot study . In: Scandinavian Journal of Caring Sciences . November 7, 2003, doi : 10.1046 / j.0283-9318.2003.00245.x .
  12. ^ School health care. Accessed January 2, 2020 .
  13. ↑ a b Access to a school health nurse and adolescent health needs in the universal school health service in Finland. Accessed January 2, 2020 .
  14. ^ What is a school nurse. Accessed December 30, 2019 .
  15. ^ School nurse. Accessed December 30, 2019 .
  16. ↑ Why are school nurses important? Accessed December 30, 2019 .
  17. ^ A brief history of school nurses. Accessed December 30, 2019 .
  18. ^ Every Child Needs a School Nurse. ( Memento from February 11, 2005 in the Internet Archive )
  19. ↑ a b School Nurse
  20. ^ School Clinic Guidelines. Retrieved December 30, 2019 (Example of Individual School Policies).
  21. ^ Self-Administration of Medication: Common Provisions. Accessed December 30, 2019 .
  22. ^ Health Records Required for Registration FAQs. Retrieved December 30, 2019 (Example of Individual School Policies).