Skolsköterskans arbete med psykisk ohälsa hos elever

Sammanfattning:   Title: School nurse work with mental health problems among students Background: A good mental health and psychosocial wellbeing is considered to be an important aspect of how students can cope with everyday challenges. In order to experience psychosocial wellbeing well working interpersonal relations and a belief in the future is important. School is an important aspect of the student’s early years in life and therefore it is vital that school health services become important part of the childhood. The school nurse is an important part of student health and he or she is responsible for vaccinations and health check-ups. Another important part of the school nurse work is counselling of students who experience issues with their mental health or psychosocial wellbeing. The incidence of these issues among students are constantly increasing. Study aim: The aim was to describe school nurse efforts to increase mental health of students. Method: A qualitative approach was used. Semi-structured interviews with eight school nurses were made. The interviews were then analyzed with manifest content analysis. Results:  The results were presented with two main categories and eight sub-categories. The first main category is Perspectives on  issues with  mental health or psychosocial wellbeing on students. In this category the school nurses describe that students with mental illness is an growing problem which needs resources to reduce. The informants’ different experiences with meeting students with issues of mental health and psychosocial wellbeing are being discussed.  In the second category, The work to create good health we describe how health counselling is being carried out. In addition, the collaboration between different actors within the educational system is investigated and discussed. Conclusion: To suffer from issues with mental health and psychosocial wellbeing can cause a lot of suffering. The school nurse is an important person within the school health services who should act as a guide in the work with these issues. More resources is needed by the school nurses in order for them to be able to continue their work in the best way possible. Key words: school nurses, mental health and psychosocial wellbeing, students, children and adolescents.