Clinical Assessment for School Nurses

Over the past several years we have delivered our workshop; Clinical Assessment: Managing Emergencies in Primary Healthcare in partnership with Brisbane North Primary Health Network (BN PHN). While the workshop was originally designed for clinicians working in Urgent Care Centres, some in attendance worked in other settings including a group of school nurses who indicated a need within their sector for a similar style of education. This led to the development of a course specifically for this cohort - Clinical Assessment for School Nurses.

School nurses provide a unique service within the healthcare industry delivering a complex range of services to students, staff and the broader school community. School Nurses often work as solo practitioners to support health outcomes that span the physical, emotional and mental health of young adults, staff, and the broader school community. 

Given the unique services they provide and the fact that most school nurses work independently, we needed to ensure that we made the most of their time in the classroom and developed content relevant to their role. Given the scope of work, it was quickly identified that the workshop would require two days. Further to this, school nurses are not a homogenous entity with their roles varying depending on whether their employer is a government, non-government, or religious entity, and which state they work in among other factors. To cater to this, our unique course was developed over several months.

During the course development, we worked closely with several school nurses to build out content and scenarios relevant to their practice. 

The workshop starts with foundational skills including building rapport, creating a safe space for connection, gaining permission, and understanding and explaining reporting requirements without losing trust. The workshop then moves on to clinical skills including primary and secondary assessment, common mouth/teeth, eye and nose injuries, head injuries, suspected head injuries, soft tissue injuries, suspected fractures, respiratory assessment, stings and envenomation, wound management, pain management, dehydration, suspected drug use, and self-harm. Finally, the practical aspects of running a school clinic are explored, including the development of policies and procedures.

Given that the initial request came from a group of school nurses in Queensland, we decided to work with those school nurses in the first instance to pilot our first workshop in Brisbane in the September school holidays of 2024. Subsequently, further workshops have been delivered in Brisbane and we have dates planned for Toowoomba in early 2025. We then plan to deliver the workshop in other jurisdictions.

At the Benchmarque Group we love feedback and to hear suggestions from students, clients and stakeholders about what content they would like to see us develop. We would like to thank Brisbane North PHN for supporting this cohort, and for the School Nurses in Queensland who helped us develop a workshop that meets the learning needs of this cohort. While this course will never be as popular as some of our other offerings, we are pleased to be able to respond to feedback and develop a course that meets the needs of this workforce.