In addition, nurses are regularly monitoring new material that comes from the Icelandic Health Care Development Centre. “There are 17 nurses who work part-time in the schools. We meet in person once a year to review the situation, discuss innovations and share knowledge. Besides that, we are in an online relationship. We work in 29 primary schools in the HSN area and the number of students is almost 4,800 children of diverse nationalities.”

Diverse work for school nurses

School nurses provide preventive education for children and adolescents in the first to tenth grade, for parents and guardians, and for teachers and other staff in the schools. The education is appropriate for the age and development of the children. In addition, nurses perform vaccinations and general monitoring with measurements of height, vision and weight.

School nurses have facilities in all schools to accommodate children. The presence varies between schools, depending on the number of students, but in larger schools it is daily. Most school nurses also do other activities alongside school care. “It’s important to be visible to the children, which includes a preventive value. Our goal is to promote the health of students and their well being, so it’s important to be available. We work with parents and guardians, interdisciplinary with school staff, and others involved with students’ issues, such as social services, school services, representatives of prevention, youth and child protection. So the work is extremely diverse.”

It is rewarding to watch the children grow up

“It’s really rewarding to meet the first graders, be with them in everyday life and watch them grow up in school.” In recent years, the society has changed and the number of children of foreign origin has increased in the student population. “We are available for the children and do our best to lead them on to a new culture and a new country. It can be a challenge for them, but it’s really rewarding to see them reach a new level.”

Offering housing assistance to nursing students in smaller communities

Ingibjörg is responsible for the clinical training of nursing students at HSN. “It is important for us to have good contact with the universities and to be able to introduce the nursing students to our work. We have been lucky to have annually great students visiting all departments at HSN, including school nursing. It has been a challenge to bring in nursing professionals, but we have introduced our work to young nursing students in internships and we are so well placed in the countryside that we can help them with housing in smaller communities when they come to us. Working in the countryside during the study period gives them valuable experience both professionally and personally and can make it easier for young nurses later on to take a job in the countryside.”