School Nurses’ Experiences in Dealing with Adolescents Having Mental Health Problems

Abstract

Introduction An increased number of adolescents experience mental health problems. School nurses have described spending more than 50% of their time working with mental health in students. The lack of knowledge and necessary training to meet students’ mental health needs has been described previously. School nurses have a responsibility to find and guide those who need help with mental health problems. Objectives The aim of this study was, therefore, to explore school nurses’ experiences with mental health and how they in this work identify, talk, and intervene with adolescents having mental health problems. Methods A qualitative study was conducted with 21 school nurses using focus group interviews which were analyzed by means of content analysis. Results Three descriptive categories emerged: Health-promoting or preventive approaches, Enabling students to talk about feelings, and Collaborating partners. Conclusion School nurses highlight their mandate to work with health promotion and prevention but also draw attention to their difficulties in identifying those who need help. School nurses use their creativity, intuition, and knowledge but have difficulty identifying those students who need help with mental health problems. They also highlight collaboration with other professionals both in schools and in the health system.

Hidden and unacknowledged: The mental health and psychosocial interventions delivered by school nurses in Western Australia

“…In the international context the work of school nurses with child and adolescent mental health problems has had more attention, especially in the United States, Great Britain and Scandinavia (see for example Kaskoun and McCabe (2022), Taylor‐Beirne and Taylor‐Beirne (2022) and Moen and Jacobsen (2022)). While the direct transferability of these findings to the Australian context is limited owing to differences in nurse education and systems of schooling, this work demonstrates the potential of the school nursing workforce to be more effectively utilised in mental health in schools.…”

Helseskaping og helserisiko i skulekvardagen

“…Studien tyder likevel på at skulehelsetenesta i hovudsak arbeidde på individnivå, og at det var mangel på systematisk samarbeid mellom skulen og skulehelsetenesta når det gjaldt faktorar som fremjar det psykososiale laeringsmiljøet. Mangel på eit systematisk samarbeid mellom skule og skulehelseteneste har også blitt påpeikt i tidlegare forsking (Helleve et al, 2022;Lassemo & Melby, 2020;Moen & Jacobsen, 2022). Ein brei tilnaerming handlar altså om betre samarbeid mellom skule og skulehelseteneste, men óg om tverrfaglegheit innad i skulehelsetenesta.…”

“…Ein studie av 284 helsesjukepleiarar tilknytta skulehelsetenesta i 163 kommunar viste at dei fleste brukte meir enn 25 % av arbeidstida på å jobbe med elevar med mentale helseutfordringar (Moen & Skundberg-Kletthagen, 2018). Helsesjukepleiarar i skulehelsetenesta etterlyser likevel meir opplaering i mental helse og retningslinjer for tverrfagleg samarbeid (Moen & Jacobsen, 2022;Skundberg-Kletthagen & Moen, 2017). Ein studie utført av Sintef (Lassemo & Melby, 2020) avdekka utfordringar knytt til bemanning i skulehelsetenesta, inkludert utbreidd bruk av deltidsstillingar, låg lønn og høgt arbeidspress.…”

Adolescent boys’ experiences of mental health and school health services - an interview study from Norway

“…Previous research has focused on the school nurse's perspective of mental health [27][28][29], but also on adolescent boys who had visited the public health nurse because of mental health problems [16], and adolescent males who had not received help for psychosocial problems from any formal help services [30]. According to adolescent boys (16-21 years old) who have been in contact with school health services, the first barrier to seeking help is also the largest [16].…”

“…According to adolescent boys (16-21 years old) who have been in contact with school health services, the first barrier to seeking help is also the largest [16]. Due to an increased prevalence of mental health problems [1,6], and since school health services involved in preventive mental health work [14,28] need to pay attention to factors that can affect the health of the adolescents [31], it is important to listen to the voices of adolescents about their experiences of mental health and school health services. However, to the best of our knowledge, this is the first study that includes experiences of adolescent boys in 7th grade, who either have or have not visited the school nurse for mental health problems.…”