ASSESSMENT OF SCHOOL HEALTH SERVICES AND NEED FOR VISITING NURSE AMONG PRIMARY SCHOOLS IN OWO LOCAL GOVERNMENT

ABSTRACT Globally, there has been a significant increase in school enrolment over the past decade. Even though parents are in the best position to note any health problem with the child, most parents have little time for their children, spending most of their time at work, and this leaves their children in the care of schools for longer hours each day. Consequently, school health programme (SHP) is an important component of the overall health care delivery system of any country as they promote the growth and development of every child taking into consideration his/her health needs. However, despite the established advantages of school health services, the embrace of proper and effective services in primary schools are yet to be fully imbibed. This necessitated this study to assess school health services and the need for a visiting nurse among primary schools in Owo local government, Ondo State.In order to achieve this, a descriptive cross-sectional design was adopted for this study and a sample size of 150 head teachers and teachers in primary schools in Owo LGA was selected using a simple random sampling technique. Data collection was done using a self-administered questionnaire and analyzed with the Statistical Package for Social Science SPSS, using descriptive analysis and chi square analysis for hypothesis testing. The findings of this study showed a low level of availability of school health services (37.3%) and a high level of request for visiting nurses in the school (88%). In addition, the major factors influencing the implementation of school health services include unavailability of school/visiting nurses, inadequate health resources, and lack of teamwork among school teachers and nurses. It is essentially important to continue to improve the awareness of importance of SHS among the government officials and school management in order to increase the overall availability of SHSs Word Count: 297 Keywords: assessment, school health services, students, head teachers, visiting nurse