Some Health Effects of Implementing School Nursing in a Norwegian High School: A Controlled Study

The effects of a school nursing service on health complaints and mood were investigated in a Norwegian high school. The school nursing service was delivered to students in 1 high school, and students in a comparable high school served as the comparison group. There were 41 students in the treatment group and 63 in the comparison group. All students completed a survey at the beginning of 2 successive fall terms. The survey had items on common health complaints, perceived stress, efforts to cope, moods, and sense of humor. Results from multivariate analyses of variance found that test-retest variance was stable for all measures. Level of complaints tended to be reduced as an effect of access to the school nursing service. Sense of humor at follow-up tended to buffer health complaints and negative moods.