Schoolchildren's health as judged by Swedish school nurses — a national survey

Abstract

School nurses work closely with the children and meet them continuously during the school age period. They have a genuine knowledge of schoolchildren's health, which should be used even more, both in research and practice. The results may be applicable in other countries with similarly organized school health systems.

Swedish school nurses’ perspectives on caring for and promoting the health of adolescents with mental health problems – A qualitative study the Health of Adolescents with Mental Health Problems – A Qualitative Study

“…This was supported by earlier studies. [12,16,17,30] The leadership, not a health professional, and the teachers in the school also played a crucial role. A principal who prioritised health promotion and saw the connection between health and learning facilitated the work, but if the opposite was the case, the principal became an obstacle.…”

“…[15] Swedish school nurses evaluated pupils in general as physically healthy, though girls consulted the school nurses more often because of subjective health complaints. [12] In a recent Swedish study, school nurses perceived that the physical and mental health among school-aged children was somewhat better in 2015 than in 2005. However, this was the case among school nurses employed in low-risk areas.…”

“…[11] Mental health problems may be manifested as physical symptoms, such as feelings of anxiety, worry, feeling depressed or stressed, stomach pain and headaches. [12][13][14] Over the last few decades, there has been an increase in the rates of mental stress among adolescents, as seen in various international studies. In Norway, a recent national survey reported that adolescents struggled with mental health and sleeping problems, feelings of hopelessness and bad self-image; of those, 10% reported symptoms of depression.…”

“…The fear of the misinterpretation of such notations was a major reason for not documenting mental health problems. [12] At the same time, school nurses wanted to document all aspects of health and saw the importance and value of documenting such for future consideration. The structure of the health record, which emphasises physical health, made it more difficult to document sensitive issues, although doing so was considered important.…”

Health dialogues between pupils and school nurses: A description of the verbal interaction

“…These results are in concordance with Borup [3], where pupils reported discussing psychosocial topics less frequently than more physical health promotion issues. Mental health and psychosomatic symptoms are areas that have been reported to be increasing [22], and school nurses have also reported this health problem as frequently occurring among pupils [25]. It is somehow surprising that these issues are not discussed more frequently; however, both school situation and relationships were the topics in which the pupils were most active in terms of utterances.…”