Perceptions of the School Nurse's Role

Abstract

This study identifies and compares perceptions of school personnel (principals, teachers, counselors and school nurses) about the nurse's role in secondary school settings. A two-art questionnaire was utilized. Part one elicited descriptive data, while part two consisted of 50 Likert-type items related to the school nurse's role. Mean perception scores on the 50 items were obtained by job category and compared using a one-way ANOVA. Chi-square analyses were performed on the frequencies of scale values to determine if their distributions, by item, were the same for all job categories. Correlation coefficients were utilized to determine relationships between training levels, experience, direct contact and perceptions. Analyses revealed: (1) Significant differences in perceptions of the school nurse's role between each group of educators and school nurses. (2) No significant relationship between training level, experience, number of contacts with the nurse and perceptions of the school nurse's role.