School Nursing

The Department of Education and Early Childhood Development facilitates the delivery of the Primary and Secondary School Nursing Programs. The policy and program management for these programs is located in the Office for Children and Early Childhood Development.

The Primary School Nursing Program employs 75.8 effective full time nurses to deliver a universal vision screening and targeted hearing screening service to all Prep students in Primary Schools across the State. Primary School Nurses conduct a health assessment of all students in participating schools in their first year of School, provide follow up contact with parents, respond to referrals from school staff regarding identified health issues for students at any year level and provide referrals to relevant health practitioners.

The Secondary School Nursing Program is funded to place 100 effective full time nurses in 199 Victorian Government Secondary Schools. The programs goal is to reduce risks to young people and promote better health in the school community through health promotion activities and individual health counselling for students.