School nursing , a priority for child-centred public health

This article relates to school nursing in the North East of England. It describes an evaluation of the public health role of the school nurse and explores current practice. It highlights some of the difficulties this group of practitioners encounter in terms of their public health role. It also explores why school nurses may find their role challenging in the context of everyday practice, government proposals, reduction in the training and education activities and pupil to school nurse ratios. The notion of a disparity between actual and potential practice is the focus for the discussio