School nurse assessment of primary school children: Analysis of data from the school entrant health questionnaire

Abstract

The School Entrant Health Questionnaire (SEHQ) has been used by the School Nursing Program in Victoria since April, 1997. The SEHQ assists school nurses in developing a health profile of primary grade children and in discriminating between children with problems and children without problems. The SEHQ assesses children in 11 domains: general health, medications, immunisations, dental health, speech/language, hearing, vision, disabilities, general development, behaviour and emotional well-being, and family stress. The SEHQ was found to be reliable and valid, and to provide an excellent means of distinguishing between students who had problems and needed intervention and those who did not. This paper presents an analysis of data from the first testing of the SEHQ.

Asian children living in Australia have a different profile of allergy and anaphylaxis than Australian‐born children: A State‐wide survey

“…The survey has been distributed annually to children enrolled in primary schools in Victoria, Australia since mid-1997. 15 In 2010, the survey included questions on allergy and anaphylaxis which are used in the present analysis.…”

Associations between psychosocial factors and happiness among school adolescents

“…43 Previous research has mainly focused on the health education aspects of the curriculum, by teaching the pupils about healthy living and disease prevention. [44][45][46] Although the traditional, but still important role of the school nurse, has been screening and referral for specific health problems, 47 health promotion will mean considering social and environmental factors as well as individual factors in practice. 48 Results from the present study indicate that intervention strategies that aim at promoting interpersonal relationships and reducing or coping with stress experience in the school environment can prevent illness as well as promote general well-being and health.…”

Vision screening in preschoolers: the New South Wales Statewide Eyesight Preschooler Screening program

“…Edgecombe et al [59] found that the inclusion of simple questions directed at parents about their child's visual history on the School Entrant Health Questionnaire (SEHQ) could provide useful vision screening information to school nursing personnel. In a similar study, Jewell et al [45] asked parents to complete a questionnaire concerning their children's past eye history.…”

“…[56] Four studies examined the use of questionnaires administered to teachers, parents and/or students as screening tools. [45,[57][58][59] Finally, two studies reported that appropriate marketing strategies could increase the number of preschoolers who received vision care [60] and decrease the age at which amblyopia and strabismus were detected. [61] Many of the recommendations made in the literature were based on medium to low quality studies with no control group.…”