What health services are available in tertiary education institutes in New Zealand: Nurses’ perspectives

This study is about what on-campus health services are available to tertiary education students in New Zealand from the perspective of nurses providing the service. A review of the literature identified a lack of research into the health of tertiary education students within New Zealand. Also identified was the variability in how tertiary education institutes portray their student health services on the World Wide Web. No clear definition of a student health nurse was identified. The study design was a quantitative non-experimental design with some qualitative data. The purpose of the study was to establish what health services are available to students in New Zealand’s tertiary education student health clinics, what nurses consider the strengths and weaknesses of the student health clinics to be, whether the nurses suggest any changes to address any strengths and weaknesses, and to determine what policies guide provision of these services. All institutes based in New Zealand who provide tertiary level education, offer a student health clinic and were able to be found via the World Wide Web, were invited to participate in this study. Data was gathered via an on-line survey sent to 21 nurses working within on-campus health clinics at tertiary education institutes. Completed or semi-completed responses were received from 16 of these nurses. This represents a response rate to the survey of 76.19%. Results revealed a variety of nursing roles amongst the nurses who work within the student health clinics. All student health clinics reported offering a wide range of health services although there was some variation. Not all, for example, offered vaccination and pregnancy services. The services that that most commonly took up most of the respondents’ time in clinics were sexual health services, including family planning and contraception advice. The second most common was mental health services, followed by health promotion and education. Results indicated that more research is needed on the health of tertiary education students in New Zealand.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Nursing

Level thesis:degree_level

Masters

Grantor

Eastern Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2015

Author dc:creator

• Robertson, Sheree

• New Zealand
• nurses
• student health clinics
• student health services
• tertiary institutes
• perspectives
• surveys

Statement dc:rights

• All rights reserved

Language dc:language.iso

en

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/10652/6373

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:null:10652/6373