What is a typical School Nurse intervention pathway?

A pathway starts with a referral to us from a school, carer or health professional and works through a process of identifying, understanding, planning, advice and reflection to find out what works for each child. Content is determined by age and development so is tailored to the child and is bespoke to them. Pathways are designed by using current knowledge and literature to design a way of intervening and changing based on what works. Pathways are regularly updated and evaluated for effectiveness.

Our most used pathways are anger, anxiety, bereavement, mental health, neurodivergent assessment, time to talk, nurture, feelings and social skills.

The aim of a pathway is early intervention and heading off behaviour to prevent escalation that may require more specialist support from services such as CAMHS or CYPS. With parents the most common issues are toilet training, sleep, behaviour, worries about neurodiversity, anger and medical advice. The aim of work with parents is to upskill them to be more able to manage tricky behaviours and challenges at home.

An example of an anger pathway

Session One Introduction to anger management & when is anger a problem?

Session Two How anger is like an iceberg & the cycle of anger

Session Three Triggers & anger stop signs

Session Four The wheel of emotions & the anger thermometer

Session Five Naming and noticing emotions & developing coping skills

Session Six Healthy vs unhealthy coping strategies & know your warning signs

Further sessions Review and reiterate the learning and effectiveness for as long as needed