According to the Ministry of Social Development, the government is functioning to hire 101 nurses who will be employed in government schools in the current fiscal year in Province 3 to provide health education to children. The ministry had announced the vacancy and conducted a written examination for the nurses in the initial phase.
A senior Health Assistant at the ministry, Mr. Gopal Bajgain said that they have also published the result of written examination and have started interviews to finalize the candidates. The result of the vacancy has been published which shows 590 nurses applied, out of which 582 passed the written examination.
According to Bajgain, a nurse would serve in a school of each rural municipality, and the provincial government has allocated Rs 500,000 to each rural municipality to purchase necessary equipment and medicines for the schools. The ministry had hired as many as 20 nurses for schools last year. “After we sent nurses, sanitation and hygiene conditions improved in schools, students were more aware of their health, and the enrolment of girls improved as well,” -he added.
The Nurses who get deployed in schools conduct health check-up of students and teach them the importance of maintaining hygiene and healthy living and also teach students about adolescent problems and educate girls about menstrual hygiene.
An official serving at the Family Welfare Division under the Department of Health Services, Mr. Om Khanal said -“Adolescence is a critical period in a person’s life. With the body undergoing major hormonal shifts, it becomes increasingly difficult for young adolescents to understand the changes happening inside and around them.” Nurses deployed in government schools will help them figure out the changes and teach them ways to deal with these changes.
If we look at the data of the adolescent between the ages of 10 to 19 years, they make 23% of the total population which is merely 7 million. Many of them confront adolescent problems early into the age bracket, according to the Ministry of Health and Population.
“Nurses could play an important role in making school-going children aware of the importance of healthy behavior and teach them about the consequences of early marriage, early pregnancy, dropping out of school, drug use, and social media addiction, among others.”- said Khanal. He added that sending nurses to schools will help in behavior change, as students easily take hold of the message.
Source: The Kathmandu Post
