As a means to improve youth health, the BC Government introduced the Healthy Schools Strategy, based on a comprehensive school health framework. In Vancouver Coastal Health, the North Shore Public Health Nursing Child & Youth Team developed plans to provide school nursing in all 12 public high schools in West Vancouver and North Vancouver (School Districts 44 & 45). Nursing interventions were grounded in the PHN Wheel of Interventions. Their approach included up to 3 hours of weekly in-school office hours for appointments and consultations with youth and staff, and varied population-focused interventions: health fairs, health teaching, school health committees, immunizations, provincial youth health surveys, referrals and follow-up of health services for students and their families.
At the PHN team’s request, Dr. Elizabeth Saewyc provided in-service training on applying the PHN Wheel of Intervention to public health nursing care of adolescents, especially in the school setting, in June 2012. The PHN team also developed a tracking tool based on the Wheel of Interventions, and from September 2012 to June 2013, each nurse tracked her own nursing interventions based on the Wheel. This evaluation documented the types and perceived effectiveness of public health nursing (PHN) interventions delivered to youth and school communities in the public secondary schools on the North Shore. We used a mixed methods approach, which involved documents review, in-school observations, tracking PHN interventions, and semi-structured interviews with both PHNs and school staff. The PHNs also documented all school-based interventions and activities from September, 2012 to June, 2013 using a tracking tool they had developed.
