School Nurses

School Nurses have a huge problem nation-wide. The public still has believes that the "School Nurse" only passes out band-aids and ice packs instead of the underfunded Public Health Clinician they are.  

Some facts to check out:

• With about 30% of students having some type of current or former medical condition School Nurses are seeing more medical ill children in a day than some Doctors in war torn areas.
• Where in the 60's a school nurse had only a handful of children that needed medication administered in school each day, Some large high schools hold and dispense over 200 different meds each day by pill, inhaler, medication pump, shot or IV treatment. They do this without the benefit of support staff or pharmacy technician.
• As poorer families lack the funds for hospital and emergency room visits, many times the School Nurse provides the first assessment of injured or ill children before they go to the hospital.  
• Besides clinical duties they must respond immediately to any accident, disaster or workplace violence with advanced trauma care. They also act as the senior medical authority on-scene interfacing with the responding agencies and the public.

You can tell this is a hot button issue for me. I have personally walked into School Nurse offices with over 30 students in need of care as a normal thing. Yet they can't afford disposable supplies as the budget is 10 - 25% of what they need. 

We need to remind the public and all politicians of the vital roll that school nurses provide. They need to be paid equal to experienced trauma nurses and the Nurses office needs to be funded to take care Modern Needs of the children they server.