School4Health

School for Health programme: redesigning school health services using the participatory research action approach

School4Health

The School for Health study (School4Health) is a collaborative project between the academic community, the Faculty of Health Sciences at the Cyprus University of Technology and the School Health Services, of the Department of Medical Services and Public Health Services at the Ministry of Health. It was launched in May 2023 and aims to redesign school health services for Cyprus using the principles of participatory action research.

Research group

Cyprus University of Technology

Ourania Kolokotroni, Assistant Professor, Department of Nursing – School of Health Sciences – Principal Investigator

Christiana Nikolaou, Assistant Professor, Department of Nursing – School of Health Sciences

Koralia Michael, Special Teaching Staff, Department of Nursing – School of Health Sciences

Ministry of Health, The Republic of Cyprus

Dr Elisavet Constantinou, Director of the Medical Service and Public Health Services

Dr Irene Cotter, Director of School Health Services

Research Study Aims and Methods

In the process of redesigning school health services for Cyprus, this study aims to:

map the current activities of the School Health Services (SHS)
identify the challenges and opportunities for growth and development of the SHS in the new era post the implementation of the new Health care System (GESY)
explore health priorities and assess the health needs of school-aged children
identify evidence-based interventions that could be integrated into the School Health Service services in order to address current needs
develop a restructuring plan for the SHS with all stakeholders involved in the process

The redesign process is based on the principles of participatory action research. This methodology ensures that the process is inquiry-based, participatory and transformational. The process includes three phases: the Exploratory, Diagnostic and Development phase.

Exploratory phase: The exploratory phase includes a SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) conducted with the involvement of the School Health Service staff (School Physicians and Health Visitors/Health Practitioners. This phase also includes a series of focus groups with (a) school health service staff, (b) school teachers and staff based at the Ministry of Educations who design the health curriculum (c) nursing staff based at schools for children with disabilities, and (d) parents

Diagnostic Phase: The diagnostic phase involves analysis of the data from the exploratory phase in order to produce a list of diagnostic needs. The list of needs will be enriched with findings from the literature from epidemiological studies conducted in Cyprus and from the recent results of the Pan-European Health Behaviour in School aged Children study (HBSC) conducted by the Pedagogical Institute in 2021 in collaboration with the Ministry of Health.

Development Phase: The design phase involves mapping the diagnostic needs to evidence based recommendations from the literature (including the WHO Guideline for School Health Services, 2021) in order to design the activities of the restructured School Health Services, ensuring both acceptability and effectiveness of the interventions. The final design will be reviewed on the basis of the capacity of the School Health Services.