One School, One Nurse Program in 1,546 Schools Nationwide

‘One School, One Nurse’ Program Operating in 1,546 Community Schools Nationwide; No Expansion Next Year Due to Budget Shortage

The government has implemented the ‘One School, One Nurse’ program in 1,546 community schools across the country, considering children’s health treatment and services.

According to Hiradevi Niraula, Director of the Division under the Department of Health Services, nurses have been placed in schools to make arrangements for children’s treatment. Under this program, operated through the “School Health and Nursing Service Program,” nurses have currently been placed in 327 schools by the federal government, while in the remaining schools they have been placed in coordination with the provincial and local levels.

Director Niraula said nurses have started being placed in schools by creating posts for children’s health treatment at the school level.

Responsibilities and Role of Nurses

The nurses appointed in schools conduct overall health check-ups of children according to their needs. They are mainly assigned to carry out the following tasks:

• Check the nutritional status of students.

• Conduct tests for anemia and advise students to take iron tablets if there is a deficiency.

• Keep records of whether students have attended school or not, and ask parents about the reason if they are absent.

• Provide students with health education as needed.

In addition, under the “One School, One Nurse” program, one female student and one male student from the school are also made “health ambassadors” to run health awareness activities.

Background of the Program and Status for the Coming Year

The government started this program as a pilot program from Bagmati Province in fiscal year 2076/77 with the objective of addressing health problems in schools and spreading health-related awareness among parents through students.

Although the government has set a goal of implementing “One School, One Nurse” in all schools across the country, no budget has been allocated for this program for the coming year. Director Niraula clarified that due to the lack of budget, this program cannot be implemented in additional new schools in the coming year.