School Nurses' Attitudes toward Family Involvement in School Healthcare

Objective: We evaluated school nurses' attitudes towards family involvement in school health-care when children exhibit signs of mental health problems. Methods: In a cross-sectional study, the Families' Importance in Nursing Care-Nurses' Attitudes (FINC-NA) instrument was used to measure school nurses' (N = 133) attitudes towards family involvement. Data were analyzed with the Mann-Whitney U-test. Results: School nurses (95%) encountered students with mental health problems every day or every week. Overall, school nurses were positive towards family involvement in school healthcare. Primary school nurses were more positive compared to secondary school nurses, seeing the family as a resource and a conversation partner. School nurses who felt that they had insufficient tools to work with children with mental health problems saw the family as a burden compared to school nurses who reported they have sufficient tools. Conclusion: School nurses' attitudes toward involving families as a resource are promising. However, when nurses perceive themselves as lacking sufficient tools to respond to children's mental health problems, they are more likely to experience the family as a burden than a resource. Cooperation between school nurses and families may be crucial. Therefore, we suggest a Family Health Conversations model to improve nurse-family collaboration.