Importance of the school nurse figure in public schools in spain

In educational centers (schools and high-schools) accidents and injuries occur very frequently during the school day. In addition, these centers are attended by students with health problems that require an adult attention. Despite the demand for the school nurse figure by parents and teachers, it has not been possible to implant in the entire territory of Spain. This work aims to identify the degree of importance that the directors of Spanish public educational centers attach to the school nurse figure. To this end, a descriptive cross-sectional observational study was carried out, in which a total of 1)09 questionnaires were analyzed. Thus, only 9,55 % of the centers had a school nurse within the school day. 79,53 % of the students have needed to administer medications and 72,12 % of them need special dietary care. On the other hand, 65,16 % of the directors do not feel able to act before an eventual problem that may arise during the school day with a student. Food allergies and asthma are the most frequent problems presented by students. At this time, and in light of the results of this work, the implantation of the figure of the school nurse is necessary.