Case report of a Swedish school health clinic

The work in the school health services, which, according to regulations, should be only preventive, has developed into a mixture of preventive and curative care with strong features of social paediatrics and treatment of minor complaints. Together, the nurse and the physician make an important contribution to pupil welfare in school, providing a sense of security for children, teachers and parents. On the other hand, it is evident that the resources are not used optimally. Too much time and effort are spent on routine class examinations, which yield very little benefit, while other important tasks are neglected, e.g. co-ordination of treatment and education of chronically ill or handicapped children and health education of children and teachers. This study reports the health problems that a physician and nurse encounter during one year in their daily work at a medium sized school in a medium sized city in Sweden.