What does a school nurse do?
School nurses are involved in a wide range of services. For instance, they provide health and sex education within schools, carry out developmental screening, and administer immunisation programmes. A school nurse works in partnership with a school to create an environment that promotes healthy living, as well as responding to the needs of individual children. They also have a public health role, addressing the needs of the local school-age population as a whole, in a range of community settings including children at home. School nurses can be employed either by the local health authority, primary care trust, community trust or sometimes by the school directly.
According to a Department of Health-commissioned report published last year, national programmes such as the HPV immunisations consume substantial amounts of nursing time in the majority of local authorities. The report, Promoting the Health of Children and Young People Through Schools: The Role of the Nurse found that safeguarding and child protection work had increased significantly for nurses in the last two years and that it was common in some areas for nurses to complete and to be the lead professional for the Common Assessment Framework.
What is the best route into being a school nurse?
It is possible to work in the school health service straight from initial registration as a nurse. But to be a qualified school nurse, applicants need the Specialist Practitioner – School Nursing/Specialist Community Public Health Nurse qualification. The qualification is available at both degree and masters level. Nurses working in schools without this qualification might be known by different job titles, such as young person's health adviser or school health nurse.
NHS Careers recommends spending some time shadowing a current school nurse in order to find out more about what the role entails. It says applicants should have an understanding of health promotion, child protection, family planning, education and screening and some insight into the health needs of children and teenagers.
How is current policy affecting school nursing as a career?
School nurses have expressed concern that the present government's focus on health visitors – it aims to recruit an extra 4,200 – is damaging to the school nurse profession. The School and Public Health Nurses Association (Saphna) says its members report that funding is being diverted from school nurse training to health visitor training, with inducements offered to school nurses to train as health visitors. Sharon White, professional officer at Saphna, says: "The health visitor target is the government's only must-do around health so there is some concern about the potential impact it could have on school nursing. If you are looking for a job at the moment there is much more guaranteed for health visiting than school nursing."
However, the recent public health white paper refers to a "new vision for school nurses reflecting their broad public health role in the school community". A development programme for school nursing, which aims to look into ways to realise this vision, is led by the Chief Nursing Officer Directorate and will report back to the minister for pubic health by December. White, who is involved with the programme, says: "It's about modernising the workforce according to the most recent research and policy."
What can a school nurse expect to earn?
School nurses are generally employed as band 6 or band 7 nurses, which pays between £25,528 and £40,157.
Is the work full-time or part-time?
The Department of Health-commissioned report found the majority of school nurses worked part-time, including both term-time only or part-time during term-time. The report states: "Very few nurses worked throughout the entire year, although in a number of authorities all new appointments were being made on year-round contracts. While some respondents felt that most nurses did not want to work all year round, others felt that they would be able to attract new and 'younger' members into the nursing team if they could offer full-time contracts."
FIND OUT MORE
- The School and Public Health Nurses Association is the UK professional body that represents registered nurses, health visitors, school nurses and community nursery nurses who work in a primary or community health setting. The report, Promoting the Health of Children and Young People Through Schools: The Role of the Nurse, can be found on its website as well as guidance on becoming a school nurse. www.saphna-professionals.org
- The Community Practitioners' and Health Visitors' Association is a union that represents school nurses and is part of the union Unite. www.unitetheunion.com/cphva
- The British Journal of School Nursing is a clinical journal dedicated to school nurses and other professionals involved in the health and social care of the school-aged population. www.school-nursing.co.uk
