School Nurse Communication Tool and Efficiency in the High School Setting

Abstract

In a high school health room, the school nurse will see a diverse population of students with conditions ranging from chapped lips to difficulty breathing. The school nurse must possess the ability to efficiently, and accurately understand the presenting problem, past medical history, and medications to quickly return the student to the classroom where academic learning will resume. The purpose of the quasi-experimental, quality improvement, retrospective study was to determine if the use of a school nurse communication tool over a 16 week semester decreased the time in minutes that the high school student was in the health room in a public suburban high school setting. The participants were the high school students that presented to the health room at a public high school within a suburban Midwest city. The sample size was 1475 students. Using the seven-item communication tool, time spent in the health room by high school students was measured at baseline and intervention. The use of the communication tool did not significantly decrease the time in minutes the student was in the health room. The tool served as a guide for the school nurse to provide compassionate care in a safe environment such that the student was returned to class while empowered to make healthy behavior choices based upon health promotion education.