Examining school nurses’ health promoting role in compulsory school settings

Abstract Background Finnish schools are forerunners in promoting health for children, adolescents, and families, offering a range of dedicated services in schools to support this mission. Since services offered in schools can play a crucial role in promoting health amongst students and their families, it's essential to evaluate and improve these health promotion services to better meet the needs of users. School nurses are a vital part of the health promotive and preventive work, governed by law, offered to all students in Finnish compulsory schools. However, scarce research exists in a European context regarding the school nurses’ work in health promotion, especially focusing on their own experiences regarding health promotion actions. Methods This study investigates school nurses’ own views on their health promotive role, responsibility, and work in compulsory schools through qualitative interviews with school nurses (n = 13) in Finland, using qualitative content analysis guided by Granheim and Lundman. Results Preliminary results highlight the complexity of the school nurses’ work in Finnish compulsory schools. The tasks performed by the nurses vary from care assessments and health check-ups, to complex case solving in collaboration with different stakeholders. The school nurses highlight the importance of adopting a health promotive approach in every individual interaction, striving to provide children, adolescents and families with a low threshold contact available at school. They express the need to see and care for the students in a holistic way, including improving health and wellbeing at a general level in schools. Conclusions The study provides insight into the school nurses’ experiences regarding their role in providing health promotion in compulsory school settings. School nurses strive to have a health promotive approach in every encounter, wishing for more resources and time to get involved in health promotion on a general level in the school environment. Key messages • School nurses experience being a vital part of efforts aimed at improving health and well-being within the school environment, but request more time and resources for general health promoting actions. • By examining nurses’ views of their contribution to the students’ health promoting services, development opportunities can be located and examined to support nurses’ health promoting work in schools.