Contributing to making the school a safe place for the child: School nurses’ perceptions of their assignment when caring for children having parents with serious physical illness

AIM: To explore how school nurses perceive their assignment when caring for children having parents with serious physical illness. DESIGN: An explorative inductive qualitative design. METHOD: The study is based on interviews with 16 school nurses. The interviews were subjected to qualitative content analysis. RESULTS: The main category, “Contribute in making the school a safe place for the child”, reveals how the school nurses try to contribute to making the school a safe place for a child when his/her parent has a serious physical illness. They support children through individual support, as well as at an overall level in the school health team to make the school, as an organization, a safe place. Routines and collaboration to recognize the child when his/her parent has become ill is described as crucial to accomplishing this assignment.