The knowledge and confidence of school nurses following training to promote nutritional health

Abstract

This study is part of a larger project that aims to develop evidence-based training and resources for school nurses to support young people with their nutritional health ( Burdett, 2015 ). The purpose of this action research study was to explore the impact upon the knowledge and confidence of school nurses following the completion of the nutritional health training. A pre-training questionnaire was provided to all school nurses prior to attending the ‘champion training’ in order to gather baseline information on the knowledge and confidence of the school nurse. A further questionnaire was provided to the school nurses one month following the training, along with the provision of resources. One focus group of five school nurses who attended the training was then completed, to explore the themes from the questionnaires. When analysing the post-course questionnaires, there was a significant impact upon the school nurses self-assessed confidence levels as well as the ability to articulate the health impact of obesity on young people. The questionnaires suggest that the training had a positive impact on school nurses' confidence in particular. The themes highlighted from the focus group were ‘increased knowledge but particularly confidence’, ‘barriers going forward’ and ‘areas for improvement’. Both the returned questionnaires and the focus group were able to highlight barriers going forward, which may inhibit the sustained impact on the knowledge and confidence discussed above. The area for improvement that the focus group appeared to be most vocal and passionate about was how to disseminate the training as ‘champion’. It is unknown as to whether the training has had an impact on practice in the long term and how it translates when the ‘champions’ disseminate the training within their own teams. It would be beneficial to complete further longitudinal qualitative research to explore these themes.