Nursing Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Nursing, including details on health care, hospital staff, professional care.

Beyond the physical examination: the nurse practitioner's role in adolescent risk reduction and resiliency building in a school-based health center.

Davis TK

Loyola University Chicago, Niehoff School of Nursing, 6525 North Sheridan Road, Chicago, IL 60626, USA. tkaydavis@msn.com

School-based health centers in high schools provide a unique setting in which to deliver risk-reduction and resilience-building services to adolescents. The traditional health care system operating in the United States focuses on the treatment of illness and disease rather than on preventing problems originating from health risk behaviors. Nurse practitioners can promote healthy behavior in adolescents through linkages to parents, schools, and community organizations; by conducting individual risk assessments; and by providing health education and access to creative health programs that build resilience and promote protective factors. With a focus on wellness, nurse practitioners as advanced practice nurses and specialists in disease prevention and health promotion can establish students' health priorities in the context of the primary health care they deliver on a daily basis.

Published 5 December 2005 in Nurs Clin North Am, 40(4): 649-60, viii.
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