Abstract
Introduction: School nursing services
should be evaluated through health and academic outcomes of students; however,
it is observed that the number of studies in this field is limited. The aim of
this study is to evaluate the impact of comprehensive school nursing services
provided to 4th grade primary school students on academic
performance of students.
Methods: The quasi-experimental study
was conducted with 31 students attending a randomly selected school in economic
disadvantaged area in Turky. Correlation analysis, repeated measures analyses
of variance, multiple regression analysis were used to analyze the data with
SPSS software.
Results: At the end of school
nursing practices, an increase was occurred in students’ academic achievement
grades whereas a decrease was occurred in absenteeism and academic
procrastination behaviors. Whilst it was determined that nursing interventions
including treatment/ procedure and surveillance was associated to the decrease
of absenteeism, it also was discovered that the change in the health status of
the student after nursing interventions was related to the increase of the
academic achievement grade and the decrease of the academic procrastination behavior score.
Conclusion: In this study, the
conclusion that comprehensive school nursing services contributed positively to
the academic performance of students has been reached. In addition, it can be
suggested that effective school nursing services should include services such
as acute-chronic disease treatment, first aid, health screening, health
improvement-protection, health education, guidance and counseling and case
management.