Exploring school nurse workload through the lived experiences of school nurses caring for students kindergarten through fifth grade

Abstract

School nurses support the needs of healthy students, those with chronic diseases, all from diverse racial and ethnic groups. Current nurse-to-student ratios, or caseloads, do not fully capture the extent of their work. The aim of this transcendental phenomenological study is to acquire self-reported perspectives from urban kindergarten through fifth-grade school nurses through individual, semi-structured interviews as to what their workload entails. Participants were purposively recruited from urban elementary schools in a northeastern state. The transcripts were analyzed and coded using NVivo (2020) software and cross-checked manually. The primary and secondary themes were identified using an iterative transcript review process based on Moustakas’ phenomenological inquiry method. The six primary workload themes identified included (a) administration, (b) education, (c) prioritization, (d) diverse populations, (e) job satisfaction, and (g) daily clinical work. This study provided an in-depth understanding of some of the most important, but often overlooked aspects of school nurse workload. The impact of these themes relative to elementary students’ safety and care during the school day are important considerations for investigation in other regions of the United States. The results of this study will add some necessary qualitative data to understand how practicing school nurses view workload and the impact of their workload on student care. This study will also add to the body of the general nursing workload research. Keywords: school nurse, workload, staffing, lived experiences, phenomenology.