School Nurse Reflections on Visibility, Safety, and Relevance in Modern School Nurse Practice: A Qualitative Study

Sarah Bekaert; Tikki Harrold; Georgia Cook; Dana Sammut; Pernilla Garmy

doi:10.1177/10598405251401210

School Nurse Reflections on Visibility, Safety, and Relevance in Modern School Nurse Practice: A Qualitative Study

Sarah Bekaert
, Tikki Harrold
, Georgia Cook
, Dana Sammut
, Pernilla Garmy

Centre for Healthcare and Community Transformation (HCT)

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

1 Citation (Scopus)

4 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

BackgroundSchool nurses globally face increasing professional pressures due to the growing complexity of children's and adolescents' health needs. This makes effective working within the school health team critical.AimTo explore school nurses' reflections on working within the school health team.MethodsThirty-three school nurses from four school health teams in England participated in restorative reflective supervision sessions. Observational data and field notes from four separate sessions were analyzed using qualitative content analysis.ResultsThree themes were identified: (a) collaboration and engagement with schools and multidisciplinary teams; (b) external perceptions of the school nurse role, professional identity, and boundaries; and (c) workload, emotional demands, and support needs.ConclusionSchool nurses are facing sustained pressure, with growing caseload complexity, emotional strain, and limited recognition of their role. Restorative reflective sessions can act as a protective factor against burnout by giving school nurses the opportunity to share experiences, process emotional strain, and sustain their capacity for compassionate care. The findings underscore the need for systemic investment in school nursing, through clearer role definition, professional visibility, emotional support, and opportunities for career development.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	(In-Press)
Number of pages	9
Journal	Journal of School Nursing
Volume	(In-Press)
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1177/10598405251401210
Publication status	E-pub ahead of print - 8 Dec 2025

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2025. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) which permits any use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access page (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).

Funding

This work was supported by Oxford Brookes University (grant number 241779).

Funders	Funder number
Oxford Brookes University	241779

Keywords

collaboration/multidisciplinary teams
supervision
uniform
restorative
workforce

Access to Document

10.1177/10598405251401210Licence: CC BY

Sammut2025VoRFinal published version, 730 KBLicence: CC BY

Cite this

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abstract = "BackgroundSchool nurses globally face increasing professional pressures due to the growing complexity of children's and adolescents' health needs. This makes effective working within the school health team critical.AimTo explore school nurses' reflections on working within the school health team.MethodsThirty-three school nurses from four school health teams in England participated in restorative reflective supervision sessions. Observational data and field notes from four separate sessions were analyzed using qualitative content analysis.ResultsThree themes were identified: (a) collaboration and engagement with schools and multidisciplinary teams; (b) external perceptions of the school nurse role, professional identity, and boundaries; and (c) workload, emotional demands, and support needs.ConclusionSchool nurses are facing sustained pressure, with growing caseload complexity, emotional strain, and limited recognition of their role. Restorative reflective sessions can act as a protective factor against burnout by giving school nurses the opportunity to share experiences, process emotional strain, and sustain their capacity for compassionate care. The findings underscore the need for systemic investment in school nursing, through clearer role definition, professional visibility, emotional support, and opportunities for career development.",

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N1 - Publisher Copyright: © The Author(s) 2025. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) which permits any use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access page (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).

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N2 - BackgroundSchool nurses globally face increasing professional pressures due to the growing complexity of children's and adolescents' health needs. This makes effective working within the school health team critical.AimTo explore school nurses' reflections on working within the school health team.MethodsThirty-three school nurses from four school health teams in England participated in restorative reflective supervision sessions. Observational data and field notes from four separate sessions were analyzed using qualitative content analysis.ResultsThree themes were identified: (a) collaboration and engagement with schools and multidisciplinary teams; (b) external perceptions of the school nurse role, professional identity, and boundaries; and (c) workload, emotional demands, and support needs.ConclusionSchool nurses are facing sustained pressure, with growing caseload complexity, emotional strain, and limited recognition of their role. Restorative reflective sessions can act as a protective factor against burnout by giving school nurses the opportunity to share experiences, process emotional strain, and sustain their capacity for compassionate care. The findings underscore the need for systemic investment in school nursing, through clearer role definition, professional visibility, emotional support, and opportunities for career development.

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School Nurse Reflections on Visibility, Safety, and Relevance in Modern School Nurse Practice: A Qualitative Study

Abstract

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