Assessing Sense of Coherence (SOC) as an element of primary-focused health services in schools for children and adolescents with complex healthcare needs.

AIM To clarify if Sense of Coherence could be used as an element of primary-focused health services in schools. BACKGROUND The United Arab Emirates is striving to develop a high-quality, primary focused healthcare system. School healthcare services are well established in the UAE but have not yet been fully used to play a key role in this development. METHODS Cross-sectional survey study to explore Adolescents SOC and their behavioral, psychosocial, and clinical outcomes. RESULTS 408 adolescents participated in this study. Compared with others, adolescents with higher SOC had better adherence to treatment, fewer visits to the school nurse, better self-efficacy, fewer hyperactivity problems, fewer emotional problems, more prosocial behaviors, and fewer conduct problems. CONCLUSION Implementing interventions that improve SOC may support improved well-being among adolescents. The findings also support the use of SOC and salutogenesis as a framework to reinforce primary healthcare services for this population. IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING MANAGEMENT Health service managers can utilize SOC as a framework to focus service on illness prevention and health promotion, they should collaborate with education authorities to include more health-related topics as part of school curricula to promote students SOC, and finally, should assess and build awareness of SOC and associated tools among school nurses and primary healthcare providers.