Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2024 Oct;40(5):523-535.
doi: 10.1177/10598405241248429. Epub 2024 May 5.

Reported Impact of COVID-19 Workload and Stressors on School Nurses' Provision of Care During the 2021-2022 School Year: A Secondary Analysis of U.S. School Nurse Survey Data

Sarah L Merkle  1   2 , Justin Ingels  2 , Daniel Jung  2 , Michael Welton  3 , Andrea Tanner  4 , Sharunda Buchanan  1 , Sarah Lee  5
Affiliations

Reported Impact of COVID-19 Workload and Stressors on School Nurses' Provision of Care During the 2021-2022 School Year: A Secondary Analysis of U.S. School Nurse Survey Data

Sarah L Merkle et al. J Sch Nurs. 2024 Oct.

Abstract

Many school nurses experienced increased work burden and stress during the COVID-19 pandemic. This analysis examined data from a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention cross-sectional, nationwide survey of school nurses in March 2022 to examine associations between school nurses' ability to conduct their core responsibilities and selected nurse and school factors among school nurses during the 2021-2022 school year and COVID-19 pandemic. Perceived adequate staffing and financial compensation reduced the odds of reported difficulties across all core school nursing tasks. Nurses without a registered nurse license and with higher caseloads were more likely to report difficulty in implementing specific tasks. The impact of these factors varied, with inadequate financial compensation having the largest association with school nurses' difficulty implementing all the core responsibilities. The study results improve our understanding of school nurses' challenges in implementing core school nursing responsibilities during the COVID-19 pandemic in the 2021-2022 school year.

Keywords: COVID-19; emergency response; policies/procedures; school health; school nursing.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of Conflicting InterestsThe author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Conceptual Model of Research Questions Note. Shaded boxes are concepts that are not included in the multivariable data analyses.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
CDC School Nurse Survey Respondent Eligibility for Study
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
School Nurses’ Reported Difficulty Implementing Core School Nursing Activities Due to COVID-19 During the 2021–2022 School Year Note. N = 6,995 school nurse respondents with >1 year of experience.
Figure 4.
Figure 4.
Final Dependent Variables Based on Factor Analyses, Heat Maps, and Qualitative Analyses
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

References

    1. American Academy of Pediatrics & Children’s Hospital Association. (2023). Children and COVID-19: State data report. https://downloads.aap.org/AAP/PDF/AAP%20COVID-19%20State%20Data%20Report...
    1. Bartek N, Peck JL, Garzon D, & VanCleve S (2021). Addressing the clinical impact of COVID-19 on pediatric mental health. Journal of Pediatric Health Care, 35(4), 377–386. 10.1016/j.pedhc.2021.03.006 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Beal JA (2021). Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on mental health of children, adolescents, and young adults. American Journal of Maternal Child Nursing, 46(4), 237. 10.1097/NMC.0000000000000726 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Buttner A (2021). Diagnosing the school nurse shortage. Frontline Education. https://www.frontlineeducation.com/blog/school-nurse-shortage/
    1. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (n.d.). Training tools for healthy schools e-Learning series. U.S Department of Health and Human Services. https://www.cdc.gov/healthyschools/professional_development/e-learning/s...

LinkOut - more resources