School Nurse Role in Mental Health for Secondary School

Role of School Nurse for the Mental Health of Secondary High School Students
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February 6, 2017
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According to Blackborow, et al. (2013), Nurses are vital for any school communities for they serve as the primary evaluators of potential mental health problems, which could affect any students at any given time. More specifically, their function is very important since they can collaborate with the concerned parties such as the school administration, PTAs, and even outside organizations in order to pursue programs that are potentially beneficial for a student’s well-being. However, during difficult times (e.g. increase in number of students with mental health problems), a school nurse faces lots of risks that could be both detrimental for her and her patient’s health. Some of these risks, which are most common among these shool nurses are compassion fatigue and stress. In most cases, compassion fatigue arises from regular care giving work performed in a daily basis CITATION CFA13 \l 1033 (CFAP, 2013). It’s symptoms could vary in severity depending on a number of factors that the nurse and/or the patient experiences. On the other hand, physical stress is more linked to physical fatigue rather than psychological fatigue. Just like any kind of tedious work, having many patients increases the amount of effort that is required from the nurse herself, thus increasing physical stress. Nonetheless, the two risks stated above poses a great amount of potential dangers towards the nurse and her patients.
These dangers could lead to the nurses’ inefficiency, isolation from others, inability to implement change, and a multitude of other physical, emotinal, and social problems. And, in spite of the fact that nurses are supposedly prepared fo...