School Nurse Shortage

More and more cutbacks are causing schools to eliminate or cut back on school nurses. More disabled students are now mainstreamed into classrooms than in the past.

Nursing Shortage

There are approximately 50,000 school nurses in the United States. However, there are more students needing medical attention than in the past. Each year there are fewer nurses to care for more serious disabilities. It is estimated that 20% of students have medical issues that require nursing care or monitoring.

Mandates

In the past, students with serious disabilities were not in the regular classrooms. These students were in separate programs and educated with other disabled students where they could be monitored more closely. Mainstreaming has changed that. Students with diabetes, scoliosis, attention deficit disorder, depression, and severe allergies are now attending classes with students having

• feeding tubes
• diapers
• wheelchairs
• spinal bifida
• multiple sclerosis
• Down Syndrome
• Fetal Alcohol Syndrome
• cerebral palsy
• Asperger's
• severe autism

Teachers are not trained to be medics and rely on the school nurse for help. The problem is that many schools no longer have school nurses. If they do, the nurses are often stretched to serve nearly 1,000 students. According to the National Association of School Nurses, the following states have one nurse per 2,000 students:

• Illinois
• Michigan
• California
• Colorado

Some nurses just leave the schools and go into hospital work for a higher salary. This stretches the remaining nurses even farther. Most nurses are not able to perform routine duties as they did in the past.

Plan B

If there is no school nurse, students often go to the school counselor. But, school counselors are also overwhelmed. This leaves already over-worked teachers to do more even if not qualified. Secretaries are asked to administer first aid and medications and often have to call parents to come and get their child because they are not qualified to attend to the child. The only option is for parents to leave work and care for their child when the issue could have been easily solved by a nurse.

Parents

Jeffrey Zaslow, a writer for The Wall Street Journal, states that parents are becoming pro-active and lobbying for more school nurses for their children. Perhaps more funding will be needed. If the federal government is mandating mainstreaming into the least restrictive environment, then perhaps the federal government should provide grants to serve the students they mandate into regular education classrooms.

Read previous articles on Educational Issues.

Copyright article 2006 Barbara Pytel. All Rights Reserved.