Experiences of school health nurses regarding the provision of the school health service delivery in the Tshwane district

BACKGROUND: Irrespective of the provision of an integrated school health policy, the school health nurses continue to experience multiple challenges regarding the provisioning of school health service delivery. AIM: The aim of this paper was to explore and describe the experiences of school health nurses regarding school health service delivery in the Tshwane district. SETTING: Schools in the Tshwane district in Pretoria were used in the study. METHODS: A qualitative and descriptive phenomenological design was used to conduct the study. Purposive sampling techniques were used to select a sample from the population of school health nurses employed in the Tshwane district and conduct the enquiry because of their knowledge and experience of school health services. The researchers collected data by means of unstructured, one-on-one in-depth interviews. The Tesch data analysis method was used by the researcher and co-coder. The researcher identified categories, subcategories and themes and these were reduced into grouping topics that were related to one another. RESULTS: Positive and negative experiences of school health nurses emerged. It was evident from the findings of the study that the factors affecting the quality of the integrated school health programme (ISHP) provided were interrelated. Most of these factors negatively affected service delivery. CONCLUSION: It was recommended that the partnership between the National Department of Health and National Department of Basic Education as the main role players should be sustained at all times to ensure the successful implementation of the ISHP.