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School nursing
School Nursing
This page introduces the role school nurse and describes the experience and knowledge that it is useful to gain before entering this profession.
Role of a school nurse
School nurses provide a variety of services such as providing health and sex education within schools, carrying out developmental screening, undertaking health interviews and administering immunisation programmes. School nurses can be employed either by the local health authority, primary care trust, community trust or sometimes by the school directly.
Useful experience
The kind of experience that would be useful when looking for a role as a school nurse would include experience of working with children, having input in the development of health promotion clinics and working in the community. A school nurse would also need to have excellent communication skills and be non-judgemental.
Individuals looking to enter school nursing courses are usually required to have gained experience as a registered nurse before applying. For information about training as a registered nurse,
click here. It may also be beneficial for individuals looking to pursue this to try and spend some time shadowing a current school nurse in order to find out more about what the role entails.
Training
Staff working as school nurses will usually work towards the Specialist Practitioner - School Nursing/Specialist Community Public Health Nurse qualification. This is at degree and masters level and offered by a number of universities.
Nurses working in schools without this qualification may be known by different job titles, such as young person's health advisor or school health nurse.
Knowledge
Having some understanding of the following areas would be useful for someone looking to enter the school nursing field - knowledge of health promotion, child protection, family planning, education and screening and some insight into the health needs of children and teenagers is useful.
More information
For more information about various community roles (including school nursing), contact:
SAPHNA
Pinfold House,
10 Pinfold Rise,
Aberford,
Leeds
LS25 3EN
Tel: 07702 871922
Email: info@saphna-professionals.orgWebsite: http://www.saphna-professionals.org/Community Practitioners and Health Visitors Association
33-37 Moreland Street
London
EC1V 8HA
Tel: 0207 505 3000
Fax: 020 7403 2976
Website: http://www.amicus-cphva.org/Job vacancies appear in a range of sources including the
NHS Jobs website TOP
