The banning of new nursing schools in the Philippines was imposed in 2010 to mitigate the failing compliance of schools with various competency standards set forth by the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC), in addition to the burden of students in paying their affiliations with hospitals. In the midst of the shortage of nurses in the country that was magnified by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) decided to lift the moratorium. This paper draws on the narratives of nursing leaders and professionals on the phenomenon of nursing shortage and the issues that can arise with the reopening of nursing schools. The verbatims highlight the historical and contemporary entanglement of various issues that contributed to the problem of nursing shortage. In addressing these issues, this paper looks into some of the problems in Philippine nursing that may conform with the broad contemporary problems identified by philosopher Alain Badiou. Viable solutions may be found in the exploration of emerging research methodologies, consideration of systems thinking using technological advances, and incorporating political competency among Filipino nurses.
nursing education ; nursing school

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

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to develop a decision support system that helps school nurses manage health problems they encounter while caring for the elementary and secondary school students, and evaluate usability of it. METHODS: Knowledge was aquired by literatures review and interviews with senior school nurses and was validated by another group of school nurses. The Omaha System was used as a standardized nursing terminology to describe nursing diagnoses and interventions. The system was developed under the Windows environment. C++ was used as a program language and MS Structured Query Language as a database. To investigate usability of the system, 30 school nurses in elementary and secondary schools were recruited and asked to apply it to nursing problems they encountered in actual students care setting. RESULTS: The decision support system with seven major signs and symptoms was developed. It automatically makes a nursing diagnosis based on the input data, and also provides nursing interventions with evidence. It was proven that the system was very useful for school nurses to manage students` health problems. CONCLUSION: The system will contribute to development of expert knowledge concerning student's health problems and improve the quality of school nursing and professionalism.
Expert Systems ; Humans ; Nursing ; Nursing Care* ; Nursing Diagnosis ; Nursing Process ; 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

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 aims to understand the influence of college entrance system-related factors and scores of college scholastic ability test on a first year nursing student's academic achievement. METHODS: Data collected include both a descriptive survey designed to assess college entrance system-related factors with respect to 182 nursing students attending a 4-year nursing college program and their test scores in the first year. The data were analyzed via descriptive statistics, Mann-Whitney U test, Kruskal-Wallis test with Bonferroni's correction, and Spearman's rank correlation coefficient through an SPSS 18.0 program. RESULTS: Student academic achievement with regard to college entrance system-related factors exhibited significant divergence from first year grade point averages (hereafter GPA) and natural science grades. CONCLUSION: This study confirmed the existence of significant differences, depending on the factors regarding the college entrance system. As a result, conducting assessment to evaluate the level of basic knowledge before college entrance is highly recommended. Also recommended is the development of a support program for students projected to have difficulties with respect to their academic achievement.
Education ; Humans ; Natural Science Disciplines ; Nursing ; School Admission Criteria ; Students, Nursing*

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to investigate the current status of the 3+1 curriculum implementation of nursing college in transition from a three-year to a four-year nursing education system. METHOD: This study employs a triangulation study including a questionnaire survey and a focus group interview. The data collected from 34 nursing colleges were analyzed using SPSS/WIN 21.0 program and the interview data(9 department chairs of nursing colleges) were analyzed using qualitative content analysis. RESULTS: The important results are as follows; Many colleges applied academic performance as student selection standards. Factors in students' satisfaction are acquiring the bachelor's degree and a lot more relaxed college life. Factors in students' dissatisfaction are anxiety about national nursing exam and absence of college's own specialized programs. Main points of 3+1 course policy making are strengthening character education and core-fundamentals education in nursing. After qualitative contents analysis, three management-related subjects and 7 sub-subjects emerged. Three subjects were the effects of the 3+1 course running, the difficulties in management and how to run the 3+1 course effectively. CONCLUSION: From the results of this study, we concluded with some practical implications for the 3+1 course running for reformed nursing schools.
Anxiety ; Curriculum* ; Education ; Education, Nursing* ; Focus Groups ; Humans ; Nursing* ; Policy Making ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Running ; School Admission Criteria ; Schools, Nursing

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: School-age children spend more than half of the day at school and teachers or school nurses are responsible for managing students with asthma during school hours. Thus, the teachers' knowledge about asthma is very important for the care of asthmatic school children. METHODS: Total 159 teachers were asked to fill out questionnaire on their knowledge about asthma and their personal profiles. The survey was administered by mail. The questionnaire includes 17 items about pathophysiology, symptoms, precipitating factors, treatment, care and prognosis, which were to be answered by either 'true' or 'false'. The correct or incorrect answers were examined data was statistically analyzed by SPSS. RESULTS: Most teachers were in their thirties (54.7%) and years of teaching experience were from six to fifteen years (50.4%). The teachers who experienced asthma students were 23.6%, and 12.6% were either asthma patients or had asthma patients in their family. They had knowledge about precipitating factors of asthma, but, the knowledge was not correct in detail. Only 34% teachers knew what to do and where to contact in case of asthma attack among the students. Teachers' demographic and professional factors did not affect the knowledge about asthma, except their working experience as school nurses and/or with school nursing asthmatic students. CONCLUSION: The survey results demonstrated that their teachers' knowledge about asthma was not sufficient enough to take good care of the asthmatic students at school including emergency management. Asthma education for the school teachers is required and efficient educational programs for the teachers should be developed.
Asthma ; Child ; Education ; Emergencies ; Humans ; Postal Service ; Precipitating Factors ; Prognosis ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; School Nursing