Online forum for school nurses: Violence in the school setting

Background: Incidents of violence disrupt the safety of the educational environment and impact learning. School nurses have a vital role in addressing all forms of school violence. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to qualitatively explore the experiences of school nurses in dealing with various forms of violence. Significance: Findings from this study revealed the experiences of school nurses with violence in their daily practice. Results can be used to develop more Methodology: Thirty six school nurses from a large school district, with dense urban, suburban, and rural populations, participated in an online forum as part of a continuing education program. The online forum took place over a three month period. Thematic analysis was used to determine key constructs from the school nurses' online discussion forum of their practice in response to discussion prompts. Findings/Results: School nurses are called upon to deal with violence in all forms. The school nurses described experiences with bullying between students and staff, physical acts of violence, homicide attempts on a high school campus, and requests for evaluation of child abuse and family violence. They expressed the need for more specific training in mental health and violence. In addition, they expressed benefit from participating in an online forum as a source of professional support. Conclusions/Recommendations: School nurses have a significant role in development and maintenance of safe schools and communities. They may require more specific, tailored education and support mechanism to increase their capacity to prevent violence and to intervene when violence occurs.