School health nurses' role in managing school programmes to prevent drug abuse

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to explore and describe the nature and extent of school health nurses’ roles and responsibilities in the prevention of drug abuse by learners in schools. The study was conducted at two high schools in Eldorado Park Extension 4 (Region G), in Johannesburg West. A mixed-methods (triangulated) research approach was opted for, in terms of which structured focus group interviews, self-administered questionnaires, and participant observations optimised and complemented the data collection process. The non-probability simple random sampling technique was utilised to select 35 research participants consisting of 9 (nine) educators, 1 (one) school health nurse and 25 community healthcare workers. The 1 (one) school health nurse and the 25 community-based healthcare workers were involved in the study by means of structured self-administered questionnaires, while the nine (9) educators (who were not part of the 26) only participated in the study’s two focus group interview sessions. Among others, the study’s findings indicate that the distribution of professionally trained and registered school health nurses is not yet proportionally commensurate to addressing the problem of drug and substance abuse in schools. There has been a need to augment the shortage of school health nurses with community-based school health workers.