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.

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:

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/