Exploring the role of school nurses in primary schools: a literature review

Abstract

Introduction: The school nurse promotes the health of students within their sphere of responsibility, protects their safety and aims at their balanced development. They therefore have the potential to directly contribute to the assessment, early management and prevention of health problems in the school environment. Aim: The aim of this bibliographic review was to investigate contemporary research articles on the role of school nurses in prevention, health problem management and health promotion in primary schools. Methodology: Scientific literature searches were conducted in the electronic databases PubMed andScopus using the keywords: “primary school” and “school nurse”. The criteria used for the inclusion of articles in the review were that they should describe research studies related to health interventions in primary schools and the role of school nurses, published within the last decade in English or Greek. The sample of the present work consisted of 13 research articles (2012 - 2019). Results: The research studies reported on the prevention and treatment of obesity, the promotion of hand hygiene and influenza vaccination, the prevention of school bullying and sexual abuse, and the management of type 1 diabetes. Further studies investigated the management of stress and sleep problems, the prevention of nail biting and the management of seizures within the school environment. Conclusions: According to the contemporary scientific literature, the role of school nurses in primary schools is potentially multidimensional. The school nurse can contribute substantially towards promoting the health and balanced development of that particular school population.