I've been thinking about school nurses for awhile. A month or so ago, I told you about young Adella's visit to the school nurse in Barrow County. Because of translation issues the spanish-speaking kindergartner couldn't gain access to her cold medication.
Several weeks later I considered the role of the school nurse when I covered the increasing rates of hypertension in youth (doctors fear obesity's silent sidekick hypertension will continue to rise as our children's waistlines continue to bulge). While gathering information for the article, I was shocked and disheartened to learn that because of legal liability issues Athens Clarke-County school nurses could only check a child's blood pressure with a doctor's note.
Like I said, over the last two months, I've considered the precarious role of the school nurse. After reading an article in the NY Times this week, I'm still thinking about them (I'm reminded of the Willie Nelson song "Always on my Mind" right about now).
School nurses are inundated with visits from child after child every day. They have to determine if a child's illness is legit or an attempt to play hooky. In certain cases, like the latter example mentioned above, they can't fulfill a parent's request for a blood pressure check for fear of legal liability. In addition, some school nurses are forced to cover more than one school in a school system. (In Athens-Clarke County school nurses cover several schools each day). Simply put, school nurses are overwhelmed.
The NY Times article confirmed an earlier hypothesis: we need more school nurses. For schools that say, "we can't afford them." I'm reminded of a rather astute comment from Brian Robinson, the secondary school committee chair for the National Athletic Trainers’ Association. Though he was discussing certified athletic trainers the comment applies here. Here's a quick paraphrase, most schools hide behind the fact that they can’t afford an additional health care provider (i.e. certified athletic trainer or school nurse), but they don't make it a priority. Fact is schools can't afford not to.
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2 comments:
I could get more excited about having nurses in schools if I did not feel that parental authority was being undermined.
Schools would be the perfect place to see and treat children for most everything, but too many "health" folks have this other agenda regarding contraceptives, abortion and privacy.
Can we not have one service without the other?
I think it's very important to have school nurses available in every school all the time. Do we not have that because there are not enough of them?
I don't understand some of the restrictions that nurses have such as needing permission to take blood pressure. Health care is hard enough to get most of the time. Why create additional barriers?
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