An Analysis of the Process of How a School Nurse Deals with and Diagnoses the School Children Who Enter the School Health Room

Abstract

Purpose : The health problems of the school children who enter school health rooms not only concern illnesses and injuries, but also the degrees of illness and injury A nurse-teacher sometimes has to deal with more than one visitor to the health room at a time, because there is only one nurse-teacher on staff at every school. The purpose of this research was to observe the way of how the nurse-teachers get the information about the school children who enter the health room to decide on what or if any course of treatment should be taken. We wanted to find out the nurse-teachers' opinion of the children's health problems, and what the actual process of diagnosis was. Content of observation : The situation m which the nurse-teachers deal with the school children who enter the school health rooms. Period of research: May 98 - Sept 98 Subject of the study: 13 nurse-teachers from public primary and secondary schools in H Prefecture. Results : We found out that the nurse-teachers paid attention to how the school children entered the school health rooms, and used this information to help m their medical diagnosis. The nurse-teachers observed whether the school children had injuries or illnesses and checked their health levels. The nurse-teachers immediately made decisions bridging both educational and medical domains. When there was more than one visitor, the nurse-teachers had to make decisions on which child they should deal with first according to the degree of illness and injury.