Abstract

Australia has a long history of school nursing and a strong orientation to formal educational pathways for nursing specialization. Despite this, pathways for becoming a school nurse are lacking, and how Australian nurses became a school nurse is unclear. The aim of this study was to gain insight into this issue. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 45 Australian school nurses. Data was analyzed using inductive content analysis. Findings identified that Australian school nurses typically became a school nurse by accident, not design. They entered school nursing having already had a long and diverse clinical career and were drawn to school nursing for distinct personal and professional reasons. A significant proportion had not encountered the specialty before becoming a school nurse. These findings emphasize a need to improve the visibility of school nursing in Australia and enhance opportunities for Australian nurses to choose school nursing as a career.

Document Type

Journal Article

Date of Publication

1-1-2025

School

School of Nursing and Midwifery

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Publisher

Sage

Identifier

Anita Moyes: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4924-8827

Comments

Moyes, A., & Karemba, S. (2025). The accidental school nurse: How Australian registered nurses enter school nursing. The Journal of School Nursing. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1177/10598405251342700

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Link to publisher version (DOI)

10.1177/10598405251342700