Implications for school nursing through interprofessional education and practice

Aims and objectives: To explore the interprofessional collaboration between nursing and social work professionals in their delivery of health services for schoolchildren. Background: Interprofessional education has long been recommended as a way to meet the need for effective collaboration in school health service with a view to improving the quality of health care. No local study in Hong Kong has looked specifically at how nursing and social work professionals carry out school health services through interprofessional education and practice. Therefore, an examination was conducted of collaboration on a community-based school caring project. Design: A qualitative design was employed, using semi-structured interviews, field observation and field debriefing. Methods: Seven nursing students and five social work students were recruited and interviewed in 2011. The transcripts were analysed using qualitative content analysis. Results: Three themes were identified: (1) early identification of children's needs through interprofessional collaboration for health promotion, (2) prompt referral for schoolchildren in need, and (3) comprehensive planning and implementation of school health service. Conclusion: The strength of collaborative work between nursing and social work professionals is that it helps to identify and address these complex health needs of children. Healthcare providers are hence able to develop a fuller understanding of children's problems, which in turn enables them to provide appropriate and effective health promotion interventions. Relevance to clinical practice: The development of interprofessional education for school health services should be envisaged by the local higher educational institute and policy makers to reduce children's risk-taking behaviours and promote their health and well-being. Health educators and health policy makers can better understand how interprofessional education and collaboration can promote children health service for regional and national policy and practice.