Developing a school nursing activity demand model Staffordhire.

Area of Science:

• Public Health
• Nursing Workforce Management
• Health Services Research

Background:

• Activity demand models for the Healthy Child Programme (HCP) delivered by school nurses are scarce.
• Effective workforce planning requires accurate demand assessment.

Purpose of the Study:

• To apply a novel activity demand model to estimate school nursing workload in Staffordshire.
• To identify potential workforce capacity shortfalls within the school nursing service.

Main Methods:

• Utilized estimated delivery times for universal and targeted HCP components.
• Incorporated child population data and local information on targeted activities (e.g., looked-after children).
• Applied the model to the Staffordshire school nursing service context.

Main Results:

• The model estimates school nurses spend approximately 60% of time on individual face-to-face activities.
• Public health leadership, management, and evaluation account for an estimated 30% of time.
• Travel is estimated to comprise 10% of the school nursing workload, indicating a potential workforce capacity shortfall.

Conclusions:

• The developed model provides a framework for understanding school nursing activity demand.
• Findings suggest a need for service redesign and practice changes to meet HCP requirements.
• The model can inform commissioning decisions for school nursing services.