Supervisors info:
Αθηνά Καλοκαιρινού, Καθηγήτρια, Τμήμα Νοσηλευτικής, ΕΚΠΑ
Παναγιώτα Σουρτζή, Καθηγήτρια, Τμήμα Νοσηλευτικής, ΕΚΠΑ
Βενετία-Σοφία Βελονάκη, Καθηγήτρια, Τμήμα Νοσηλευτικής, ΕΚΠΑ
Summary:
Introduction: Every day, families trust the state to create safe and healthy learning environments for students. They expect schools to keep children safe from threats such as crime, violence, and danger, such as natural disasters, disease outbreaks, and accidents. School nurses, due to their position, are called upon to respond to a variety of crises ranging from an injured student or adult to mass illness situations observed in epidemics or pandemics, being a key factor in their management. The crisis is a potentially dangerous event that must be tackled locally, regionally or even nationally.
Purpose: The purpose of this review was to study the international literature, to provide an enhanced picture of the already established knowledge, in relation to the role of the school nurse, in crisis management in the school environment.
Methods: An electronic search of articles in the Medline, Web of Science and Google Scholar databases for the last 20 years was performed. The total number of articles that met the selection criteria and were included in the study was 12. A thematic analysis of the findings of the review surveys was performed.
Results: The results highlight that school nurses have a key role to play in crisis management in the school environment, both in planning and executing emergency plans and in supporting prevention, management and rehabilitation. The main types of crises that school nurses need to be prepared to respond to include caring for students with disabilities, chronic illness, abuse, injuries, ensuring the availability of emergency planning and equipment, managing the spread of infectious biological agents, dealing with natural disasters, caring for children from migratory flows and refugee crises.
Conclusions: The necessity for the existence of a school nurse in schools is clearly demonstrated, as based on their educational training, they can manage all phases of emergencies in the school environment. In addition, as crisis management leaders, they are in a unique position to provide ongoing coordination and comprehensive training to all school staff and to make a decisive contribution to the protection of health and safety.
Keywords:
School nurses, Crisis, Epidemic, Pandemic, Disasters, Emergency management
