Journal of School Health (08/02/26) Yu, Hsing-Yi; Huang, Chun-Hsia; Shen, Yung-Chao; et al.

A nationwide survey of 305 school nurses examined how perceived role responsibility and self-efficacy influence mental health continuing education (CE) needs. Most respondents (74.4%) had no prior psychiatric or psychology work experience. Nurses reported the highest levels of perceived responsibility and confidence in referral/resource mapping and crisis response/safety assessment, while psychotropic medication management and monitoring received the lowest ratings. Overall, CE needs were substantial, particularly in crisis response/safety assessment and student identification and assessment. Multivariable regression analysis found that perceived role responsibility was the only significant predictor of CE needs, accounting for 29.4% of the variance. These findings suggest that school health training should focus on strengthening nurses' understanding of their mental health role, providing standardized protocols for crisis response and assessment, and clarifying responsibilities related to medication coordination to reduce role ambiguity and better support student mental health.

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