An Appraisal of School Nurse Health Services and Programs in North Carolina Public Schools, 2006–2016

Abstract

School nurses are instrumental in delivering health services to children in schools. This study addresses the gap in school nurse health services data, examining patterns in health services and programs provided by school nurses between 2006 and 2016 for students in North Carolina public schools. This study focused on services and programs related to asthma and diabetes, two health conditions that affect millions of children in the United States. Over 1.46 million children attend North Carolina public schools. In 2006, the average school nurse-to-student ratio was 1:1,340. By 2016, the average school nurse-to-student ratio decreased to 1:1,086, a 19% improvement. Over the 10-year study time period, there were statistically significant increases in the rate of occurrence of all health conditions that students received health services for ( p < .001), asthma ( p < .001), type I diabetes ( p = .0003), orders for all health-care procedures ( p = .01), all school nurse–led health counseling ( p = .004), and diabetes health counseling ( p < .01).