AUTHOR=Bartelink Nina , van Dongen Bonnie , Kremers Stef , Renders Carry , van Vlokhoven Boukje , van Koperen Marije , van Assema Patricia 

TITLE=Supporting schools during the implementation of the health-promoting school approach: The roles of a healthy school advisor

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Public Health

VOLUME=Volume 10 - 2022

YEAR=2022

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/public-health/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2022.960873

DOI=10.3389/fpubh.2022.960873

ISSN=2296-2565

ABSTRACT=Background: The Health Promoting School (HPS) approach was developed by the World Health Organization to create health promotion changes in the whole school system. Implementing the approach can be challenging for schools, because schools are dynamic organizations with each a unique context. Many countries worldwide have a health promotion system in place in which Healthy School (HS)-advisors support schools in the process of implementing the HPS approach. Even though these HS-advisors can take on various roles to provide support in an adaptive and context-oriented manner, these roles have not yet been described. The current study aims to identify and describe key roles of the HS-advisor when supporting schools during the dynamic process of implementing the HPS approach.

Methods: The study was part of a project in which a capacity-building module was developed for and with HS-advisors in the Netherlands. In the current study, a co-creation process enabled by participatory research was used in which researchers, HS-advisors, and national representatives and coordinators of the Dutch HS-program participated. Co-creation processes took place between October 2020 till November 2021 and consisted of four phases: 1) a narrative review of literature, 2) interviews, 3) focus groups, and 4) a final check.

Results: Five roles were identified. The role of ‘Navigator’ as a more central one and four other roles: ‘Linking pin’, ‘Expert in the field’, ‘Critical friend’, and ‘Ambassador of the HPS approach’. The (final) description of the five roles was recognizable for the HS-advisors that participated in the study, and they indicated that it provided a comprehensive overview of the work of an HS-advisor in the Netherlands.

Conclusion: The roles can provide guidance to all Dutch HS-advisors, and the regional public health organizations that employ them, on what is needed to provide sufficient and context-oriented support to schools. These roles can inspire and guide people from other countries to adapt the roles to their own national context.