School Nurses' Management for Children and Adolescents with Diabetes

Purpose: The study purposes were to explore school nurses' experience, perceived barriers, and education needs in diabetes management at school. Methods: This study was a cross sectional study and the study participants were recruited conveniently at continuing education seminars for school nurses at Incheon Metropolitan City. Results: Data for 101 school nurses were analyzed. The nurses were all women and their mean age was $46.9{\pm}9.3$ years. About 66% of them had experience with children with diabetes at school. The school nurses reported that 74.6% of the students tested their blood glucose by themselves, the school clinic was the most common place for blood glucose tests (47.8%) and insulin injections (50.8%) and the nurses knew students' diagnosis through the student health survey (58.2%). About half of the nurses (53.7%) reported that glucagon should be available at school and 49.2% were willing to inject glucagon when necessary. The most frequently reported barrier in diabetes management was role confusion ($6.0{\pm}1.3$) and the most common educational need was emergency responses ($5.9{\pm}1.4$). Conclusions: School health policy for diabetes management and diabetes resources are necessary to minimize role confusion of school nurses, improve emergency response, and facilitate health promotion activities in diabetes management.

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