Courtesy of Young Kim/NurseWeek
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| A
faltering economy is forcing many states to cut
money for school nurses. Some schools already have
no nurses. The proposed cuts come as more students
require medication for a host of conditions. In
other words, just when school nurses are needed
more than ever, their already thin ranks are being
depleted. |
At a conference in January, organizers passed out paper
and asked California school nurses to write down anecdotes
to show the state Board of Education what was happening
in schools when nurses weren't there.
One nurse wrote about a student who often missed half
the required doses of his seizure medication, administered
by time-pressured aides. One day, the student went home,
hit his head during a seizure and was found dead by
his parents, who had assumed he was receiving all his
medication.
Another wrote about a clerk who offered an inhaler
to students who came to the office with stomachaches.
In an elementary school, one nurse wrote, an office
worker panicked when a student with epilepsy had a seizure.
Instead of giving the student medication provided by
the student's physician, she administered an injection
with an epinephrine pen used for allergic reactions.
In another case, a nurse spotted a student sitting
in the hall. Office workers assumed he had been sent
to them because he was a discipline problem or on drugs.
The nurse recognized he was a diabetic about to go into
a coma and administered medication.
Nurses wrote of medications being stolen, of secretaries
or clerks mixing up medicines and giving them to the
wrong students, of doses of medications like Ritalin
being inadvertently changed.
"These were anecdotes that we pulled together
in a three-hour period," said Nancy Spradling,
executive director for the California School Nurses
Organization. "These are things that the average
parent, the average community member and certainly the
average legislative member is completely unaware of."
This year, a faltering economy is forcing many states
to cut money for education. School districts in a number
of states are considering slashing already strained
budgets for school nurses. Some schools already have
no nurses. Others have a nurse who visits a few hours
per month or per week.
The proposed cuts come as more students require medication
for conditions like asthma, seizures and diabetes; students
with complex chronic health conditions are being mainstreamed
into classes; and new studies are showing that future
risks for health problems like high blood pressure and
Type 2 diabetes can be affected by exercise and diet
patterns in school-age children.
As states cut their public health and mental health
programs, in some places, schools must pick up the slack,
referring children to programs, or in some cases, taking
care of the health problems themselves.
In other words, just when school nurses are needed
more than ever, their already thin ranks are being depleted.
Nurses are fighting back by lobbying legislators, establishing
public education campaigns, fighting dismissal through
their unions, even running for school board positions,
but they face an uphill battle.
Many school boards and educators who control education
budgets don't understand why health is important, or
would rather cut nurses than teachers. Parents may not
realize their school does not have a full-time nurse
and relies instead on a health clerk or a school secretary
to hand out medications and to call 911 in an emergency.
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