Practice Variation Among School Health Personnel

描述(由申请人提供)：尽管作为学校卫生保健提供者的无证助理人员(UAP)激增，但很少有研究确定他们的做法与以学校为基础的RN相比的差异。这项前瞻性混合设计研究将检查：1)RN和UAP评估的学生的数量、特征和健康投诉的差异；2)RN和UAP对学生进行的评估、提供的干预措施和返课率的差异；以及3)经验、教育和培训对这些变量的影响。数据将通过使用研究人员开发的学校健康遭遇表格从为期四周的学生健康遭遇中收集。将使用研究人员开发的参与者描述表来衡量每个学校卫生保健提供者的经验、教育和培训。这两种表格都是在以前的学校健康研究基础上开发的，在本研究使用之前将进行试点测试。将计算卡方分析和t检验以检测RN和UAP之间的差异。多元线性回归分析将被用来检验经验、教育和培训的效果。这项工作的结果将提供关于学校保健提供者对学生结果的影响的有价值的数据。此外，这项研究将为未来的工作提供基础，探索确保学校保健提供者在为学生提供有效服务方面所需的角色和教育资历。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Despite the proliferation of Unlicensed Assistive Personnel (UAP) serving as school health care providers, there has been little research conducted to identify the differences in their practice as compared to school-based RN's. This prospective, mixed-design study will examine: 1) the differences in the number, characteristics, and health complaints of students assessed by RN's and UAP; 2) the differences in the assessment conducted, the interventions provided, and the return to classroom rates for students seen by RN's and UAP; and 3) the impact of experience, education, and training on these variables. Data will be collected from student health encounters over a four-week period by use of the School Health Encounter Form developed by the researcher. Experience, education, and training will be measured for each school health care provider using the researcher-developed Participant Description Form. Both forms were developed based on previous school health research and will be pilot tested prior to use in this study. Chi square analysis and t-tests will be computed to detect differences between RN's and UAP. Multiple linear regression analysis will be used to test for the effect of experience, education, and training. The results of this work will provide valuable data on the impact of school health care providers on student outcomes. Furthermore, this study will provide a foundation for future work exploring the role and educational credentials needed to ensure that school health care providers are effective in serving students.