School Nurse Practice: A Descriptive Spanish Study

Abstract

This study aimed to describe the profile and practices of school nurses working at a network of educational centers in Spain. This was a descriptive study of the documented actions of 107 school nurses between September 2018 and June 2021 in 54 educational centers (55.6% private and 44.4% subsidized). The profile of the school nurses was young (average age 33.8 [standard deviation (SD) = 7.7] years) and predominantly female (91.6%) with a diverse and multidisciplinary education, primarily at the postgraduate level (specialized mainly in emergency care, nursing/school health, and pediatrics/neonatology). They carried out 256,499 interventions. The most frequent types of incidents they treated were accidents (30.4%) and disease-related episodes (22.2%). The interventions were usually brief (average time 7.7 min) and were resolved by the school nurse (99.1%), and the main recipients were students (87.3%). The highest incidence of interventions occurs during breaks between classes. Acute interventions occupied most of the school nurses’ time, leaving little opportunity for health education (0.3%). School nurses played an important role in preserving and promoting the health of school populations and cost-savings to healthcare systems with the actions that they performed. Descriptions of these actions are essential when advocating for the continuation and expansion of school nursing services.