Effectiveness of health instruction provided by student nurses in rural secondary schools of Zimbabwe: a feasibility study.

This demonstration project used student nurses (n = 12) on community deployment to provide health instruction among rural school-age populations in Zimbabwe. A quasi-experimental (pre- and post-test), non-equivalent control group design was used and consisted of 141 school pupils in the intervention group and 144 pupils in the comparison group (N = 285). The curriculum focused on prevention of STDs, HIV/AIDS and drugs (alcohol, tobacco and marijuana). A gain in health knowledge scores among the intervention group was reported at post-test. More than 70% of the pupils who received health instruction from student nurses gave a high approval rating of student nurses' performance. Further, student nurses, teachers and tutors all support school health instruction by student nurses although tutors and teachers differ on teaching about condoms.