PURPOSE: This study was conducted to explore the professional identity of elementary school health teachers. METHODS: In-depth interviews with fifteen elementary school health teachers were conducted from July 2010 to August 2012. Qualitative data collected by the researcher including transcription and field notes were analyzed through an adapted methodology based on the Grounded Theory of Strauss and Corbin. RESULTS: Fifteen categories, 35 sub-categories and 120 concepts were obtained. The key category that was consistently maintained in identity formation was 'keeping themselves being a teacher providing nursing' which has three styles, 'focusing on health education', 'combining nursing and education' and 'focusing on providing nursing care'. CONCLUSION: Results of this study will provide basic information for preparing manuals regarding the range of activities in school health teachers' jobs, improving promotion and merit payment systems for school health teachers, creating support programs for them, and contributing to the formation and establishment of their professional identity.
Nursing ; Professional Role ; Qualitative Research ; School Health Services* ; School Nursing

PURPOSE: This study aims to examine how elementary, middle and high school health teachers in Gyeonggi province react to infectious disease like MERS. METHODS: This is a descriptive study using a convenience sample of 1,267 school health teachers. RESULTS: When MERS was an epidemic, school health teachers who took the ‘leading’ role were 92.4%. A school heath teacher's countermeasures against infectious diseases showed a high score during MERS outbreak (3.81) compared to regular days (3.59). CONCLUSION: Based on such results, it has been determined that schools need to keep two types of procedures manual, such as ‘countermeasures on a regular basis’ and ‘countermeasures in the event of a pandemic disease outbreak’ manual in the staff offices so that anyone can view them at any time. It is necessary to prepare regulations to strengthen their authority so that school health teachers can take the role of control tower, in a professional capacity, when communicable disease is spreading. In order to prevent any confusion and chaos, there should be a unitary reporting system at each school when dealing with an epidemic. School health teachers need to get continuous training to reinforce their abilities to react to communicable diseases.
Communicable Diseases ; Coronavirus Infections ; Gyeonggi-do ; Humans ; Pandemics ; School Health Services ; School Nursing ; Social Control, Formal

Aiming to understand the actual grass roots of school health activities in Korea, a fact-finding wurvey was carried out through mailing between 1978-1979 and the study results were summarized as follows: 76.4% of school nurses were less than 30 years old and 58.5% were single. 76.4% of nurses graduated from junior nursing colleges 74.5% and 64.8% were not well oriented in their new jobs. Therefore 59.2% of surveyed schools had small size clinics (less than 355 square feet). Physical examination for pupils were carried out by general practitioners mostly (70.0%). However, the follow-up was done by nurses satisfactorily. Supportive and positive attitudes toward school lunch were different between school principals (35.0%) and classroom teachers (84.5%) in the schools. Principals criticized school lunch program as not helpful for the growth and development of school children (71.0%) and as a waste of budget (18.2%). 52.4% of principals and 31.5% of teachers respecctively explained that school lunch should be provided for all pupils on the one hand and on the other hand 28.7% of principals and 34.3% of teachers gave an other opinion which was provision only for those pupils wanting a lunch. Advantages of school lunch : convenient to cat (42.2%), tasteful food (29.6%) were pointed out and the disadvantages : food is of poor quality (40.3%), not tasteful (32.6%) were also pointed out. In the comparative study between the school lunch demonstration school and the control school (non-school lunch demonstration school and the control school (non-school lunch), height and weight increase of school children and serum protein level were different : however, these facts were either not significant or of minimal significance. In short, the path towards obtaining effective and desirable health services in Korea, of which the school lunch program is only part, is long and arduous and it will require patience and effort to realize this goal.
Adolescent ; Body Height ; Body Weight ; Child ; Female ; Food Services ; Human ; Korea ; Male ; School Health Services/supply & distribution* ; School Nursing/manpower

A surveillance on the situation of school sanitary at 89 schools during the school year of 1999-2000 and an investigation on knowledge for disease preventive sanitation at 26 primary and secondary schools showed the school sanitary still had many problems: 50,56% of schools had enough areas; 47,19% of schools had enough areas for plantation; 31,46% of schools had sufficient playing ground. There were many limitations on class sanitary; 48,31% of schools had adequate lighting in classes; 59,55% schools had desks with proper standards; 74,6% boards met requirements. Lack of toilets in schools: 46,08% schools had enough toilets; 64,06% had enough pees; 40,45% had enough boiled water for pupils.
School Health Services ; Sanitation

PURPOSE: This study was carried out to suggest methods for improving school health promotion programs by investigating the daily activities and the performance level of environment management, the awareness of importance, and opinions on the revision of and knowledge about laws and regulations related to school health promotion programs. METHOD: The subjects of this study were 289 school nurses in Gyeongsangbuk-do. The survey used a questionnaire containing 90 questions developed by the present researcher. Data were collected from July 5 to July 21, 2006 and analyzed using SPSS 12.0 for Windows. RESULT: 1. Regular check-up and drinking water management got the highest score in performance level. Sexual health and drinking water management got the highest score in the awareness of importance. 2. School nurses were aware of laws and regulations related to their clients (0.93), and the revision opinion was high on the whole (3.58). 3. According to general characteristics, the more educated school nurse were (F=6.80, p=.001) and the fewer students their school had (F=4.66, p=.010), the higher their performance level in daily activities was. The shorter their career in their work was (F=4.86, p=.008), the fewer classes their school had (F=5.04, p=.007) and the fewer students their school had (F=3.83, p=.023), the higher their awareness of importance was. 4. There was not any difference in the performance level of environment management according to general characteristics. The awareness of importance was highest in school nurses with experience less then ten years (F=3.66, p=.027). 5. There was not any difference in knowledge about laws and regulations according to general characteristics. The revision opinion was high in school nurses at schools with less than 18 classrooms (F=6.04, p=.003) and less than 500 students (F=4.24, p=.015). CONCLUSION: When school nurses perform school health promotion programs actively and vigorously, the students can be healthy and national health promotion can be actualized fundamentally.
Drinking Water ; Gyeongsangbuk-do ; Health Promotion ; Humans ; Jurisprudence ; Reproductive Health ; School Health Services* ; School Nursing ; Social Control, Formal ; Surveys and Questionnaires

PURPOSE: This study explores school nurses' emergency care experiences and their needs for systemic institutional support. METHODS: Data were collected in 2016 from the interviews with five focus groups comprising thirty school nurses. Qualitative content analysis was then performed using the collected data. RESULTS: The study found that school nurses were vulnerable to over-reaction in uncertain situations as the school's sole health service provider. The study's findings are divided into ten categories. 1) Major obstacles to overcome as the sole health service provider, 2) Assessing an uncertain situation and making appropriate decisions, 3) Providing limited first aid while maintaining control over the situation, 4) Referring or transferring a student to a hospital that creates tensions and raises cost, 5) Becoming an advocate for information disclosure and treatment, 6) Ensuring follow-up actions and proper transfer of responsibility, 7) Making preparations for future emergency, 8) Responding to conflicts arising from over-reaction as a safeguard and professional expertise, 9) Need for the development of standardized manual for school emergency care, 10) Need for practical case-based training. CONCLUSION: The findings of this study should contribute to the development of the programs aimed at improving school emergency care and the professional competence of school nurse.
Disclosure ; Emergencies* ; Emergency Medical Services* ; Emergency Nursing ; First Aid ; Focus Groups ; Follow-Up Studies ; Health Services ; Humans ; Professional Competence ; Qualitative Research ; School Health Services ; School Nursing

PURPOSE: To identify current status of university health care program. METHODS: Data and information from homepages of 309 colleges or universities in South Korea were collected. The data was analyzed by frequencies, t-test, chi2 test with SPSS Ver. 18.0. RESULTS: 117(37.9%) universities had organization of health care. Whether university had health care program or not had shown significantly depended on number of students, types of school (university or college), region, and existence of medical and nursing course. Medical course was shown as a strong predictor for facilitating university health care program limitedly focusing on diseases treatment. Health promotion programs have been operated in 15 universities, vaccination programs in 10 universities, and health screening in 20 universities. CONCLUSION: It is strongly recommended to revise the School Health Law for constructing a comprehensive university health care program consolidating health counseling and physical training.
Counseling ; Delivery of Health Care* ; Health Promotion ; Humans ; Jurisprudence ; Korea ; Mass Screening ; Nursing ; School Health Services ; Vaccination

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to survey the current status of mental health education and need for mental health education enhancing protective factors in the elementary schools. METHODS: We surveyed 10 school health teachers and 328 fifth- and sixth-grade students using 19- and 20-item questionnaires, respectively. RESULTS: All of the teachers and 65.2% of the students replied that they were either teaching or being taught mental health in school. Topics covered suicide, depression, school violence, and Internet addiction. All of the teachers and 84.1% of the students expressed the need for mental health education enhancing protective factors in school. Both groups replied that two sessions are enough. The teachers preferred role play and discussion as teaching methods, and audiovisual materials and computer as instructional media. The students preferred lecture and role play as teaching methods, and audiovisual materials and smartphone as instructional media. Both groups ranked self-esteem, parent-child relationship, peer relationship, and emotional regulation as the most important topics to be covered in the education. CONCLUSION: There is a high demand for mental health education enhancing protective factors. Therefore, it is recommended to develop educational programs enhancing protective factors by enabling formal and informal learning using smartphone.
Depression ; Education* ; Health Education ; Humans ; Internet ; Learning ; Mental Health* ; Needs Assessment ; Parent-Child Relations ; School Health Services ; School Nursing ; Suicide ; Teaching ; Violence ; Smartphone

PURPOSE: This study was to analyze the trends of research on school health by examining papers related to school health. METHOD: This studt was analyzed all related papers published in journals concerning school health from 2000 to 2006. The data were processed statistically by frequency, percentage and content analysis. RESULTS: Among 463 papers in 6 journals related to school health, 'The Journal of the Korean Society of School Health' had the largest number of articles. Descriptive research design was the most frequently used research design, and students were the most frequent research target. Among research writers, the professor group was largest, and schools were the most frequently used place for research. The most common sampling method was convenient sampling. The most common research instrument was questionnaire survey. Parametric statistics were the main methods of data analysis. Among the themes of school health, the adoption of nursing process frames and assessment domains occupied the largest portion. Health was the most common key concept, and the mainly used theory in the journals was factor-isolating. CONCLUSION: Through the analysis of research trends, we expect a higher level of school health research.
Humans ; Nursing Process ; Research Design ; School Health Services* ; Statistics as Topic ; Surveys and Questionnaires

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to contribute to enhancing elementary school health teachers professional job performance by analyzing their job identity and job stress. METHODS: The participants were 138 elementary school health teachers registered at the Busan Metropolitan City Office of Education, and the survey was conducted from the 22nd to 23rd of July, 2010. The collected data were analyzed by percentile, t-test, ANOVA, Pearson's correlation coefficient, and stepwise multiple regression using the SPSS/WIN 17.0 program. RESULTS: The average percentiles of job identity and job stress were 70.6 and 64.0 respectively. Among the sub-factors of job identity, autonomy was highest as 73.5, and among the sub-factors of job stress, job demand was highest as 73.9. There were significant differences in the degree of job identity and job stress according to education status, the number of classes, job satisfaction, enthusiasm for work, and the image of nursing teachers expressed in a word. The regression model explained 21.2% of the variance of job identity. job stress explained 32.0% of the variance. CONCLUSION: It is important to develop various comprehensive programs for improving job identity and managing job stress. In addition, it is necessary to provide support systems including persons, promotion and rewards to school health teachers.
Busan ; Education ; Humans ; Job Satisfaction ; Nursing ; Occupations ; Reward ; School Health Services* ; Social Identification ; Stress, Psychological