Background: Project Connect is a national program to build partnerships among public health agencies and domestic violence services to improve the health care sector response to partner and sexual violence. Pennsylvania piloted the first school nurse-delivered adolescent relationship abuse intervention in the certified school nurses' office setting. The purpose of this study was to assess the feasibility of implementing this prevention intervention.
Methods: In 5 schools in Pennsylvania, school nurses completed a survey before and 1 year after receiving training on implementing the intervention as well as a phone interview. Students seeking care at the nurses' offices completed a brief anonymous feedback survey after their nurse visit.
Results: The school nurses adopted the intervention readily, finding ways to incorporate healthy relationship discussions into interactions with students. School nurses and students found the intervention to be acceptable. Students were positive in their feedback. Barriers included difficulty with school buy-in and finding time and private spaces to deliver the intervention.
Conclusions: A school nurse healthy relationships intervention was feasible to implement and acceptable to the students as well as the implementing nurses. While challenges arose with the initial uptake of the program, school nurses identified strategies to achieve school and student support for this intervention.
Keywords: adolescent relationship abuse; adolescents; dating violence; school nurse.
© 2017, American School Health Association.