The Health of the School Nurse Community: A Framework

Abstract

School nursing is based on a conceptual foundation of community health nursing. Using community health nursing as a reference point, this article describes a viewpoint of school nurses as the population of care. With this perspective, school nurses will better understand how to foster the health of their community. Developed on the basis of McKenzie, Pinger, and Kotecki’s community health model, the Health of the School Nurse Community Framework has been designed to (a) facilitate understanding of the concept of “school nurse community” and (b) organize the factors that affect the health of the school nurse community. Essential to its use is the identification of the school nurse community’s assets and capacities as well as its needs. Application of the framework to strive to improve the health of one state’s school nurse community is also presented.