School nurses a thing of the past?

by Jay Allen (Subscribe to Jay Allen's posts) Jan 24th 2006 11:02AM

Remember the school nurse? I sure do. For most of middle school I was in her office at least twice a week, attempting to dream up a new excuse to get my ass sent home for the day. (The classes were fine; it was the other kidsin the classes who didn't sit well with me.) If I were a student today - and, for some bizarre reason, I seem to repeat 7th grade in my dreams at least once a week - I'd probably be trying to con the principal and his assistants. CNN.com reports that in most cases, the "school nurse" has gone the way of "duck and cover" drills. In many cases, a single nurse travels a half-dozen or more schools, seeing students and training administrators in what do should a kid, oh, you know, go into anaphylactic shock or something. This means diabetic kids like Katie Assael have to have a parent within minutes of the school at all times - since if Katie needs to have an insulin shot, a parent must administer it, as no one else at the school is legally allowed to give it to her.

This can't be the plan. Tell me this is NOT the plan.

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Comments (11)

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Shylah 2-15-2006 @ 8:04PM

I'm continually finding it less necessary to argue my pro-homeschooling stance when the schools are doing such a great job of it for me.

Rachel May 1-24-2006 @ 11:18AM

As a former public (now private) high school teacher, I'm here to tell you: this IS the plan. And it sucks.
The solution? Better money management by the government. HA HA HA HA HA!!!! *whew*... I crack myself up sometimes.

suburban misfit 1-24-2006 @ 11:41AM

It probably depends on the district and how much money they have. I've found that schools that can't fund art and music probably can't fund a full-time nurse.

We have art and music and a full-time nurse at my kids' school, and the middle and high schools have them as well.

But what a bad idea, getting rid of the nurses.

shay 1-24-2006 @ 11:59AM

I work at an elementary school, and we are fortunate enough to have a nurse here from 8am-2pm. I can't imagine the schools that don't. It seems like in this day having a nurse is even more critical, what with all the kids with asthma who need regular treatments, and those on other 'meds'-- all of which she administers. Not to mention, keeping up with all the vaccine/dental/eye/hearing records. Who else would do that?

amanda8 1-24-2006 @ 12:39PM

Having a child with hemophilia, this scares me. I will always feel the need to be within minutes of the school, whether or not there is a nurse. However, having a trained professional on hand sure does put your mind at ease.

KC 1-24-2006 @ 12:39PM

Yes, it is the plan, even as kids are being medicated out the wazoo for bogus and legit reasons. Something will have to give. I suspect it'll take some deaths and near-deaths to make it happen.

Cathy 1-24-2006 @ 12:55PM

That is the plan in all of TN. Many schools (like ours) have PTA pay for a part-time nurse. I wonder if the parents of medically fragile children are forced to contribute extra for this part-time nurse.

margalit 1-24-2006 @ 1:12PM

Every school in our district, one that includes 19 elementary schools, 4 middle schools, and 2 high schools, has a school nurse in place all day. When the town threatened to pull some of the nurses two years ago due to budget constraints, the residents voted for an override in order to pay for nurses. They are responsible for giving medications during the day, helping with sick kids, identifying child abuse, and offering a safe haven for kids that need a bit of a time out from the hectic nature of school. Nurses are important and my community recognizes this, as do most of the city and towns around us.

Caitlin 1-24-2006 @ 1:33PM

It's been the plan for quite a while in less affluent districts. We had one nurse for our entire parish when I was growing up. She was at our school roughly once a month or so. There are a lot of districts that aren't anywhere close to adequately funded.

There were a lot of years teachers couldn't give us homework because the district couldn't afford enough books to allow us to take them home. We weren't allowed to sit near the windows in the old building of my high school, because said windows would fall inward if we got a gust of wind more than 5mph. Most of the schools were in a similar state of disrepair. With all of this, I'm not surprised we only had one nurse for ~60ish schools. We've had numerous sales tax proposals to help the schools out, but people would rather complain than do something to actually help their schools out.

LB 1-24-2006 @ 1:50PM

I wanna say this issue was in the NYT several months ago. It's horrible. Also this is happening at camps- especially Park District-type camps. I had a friend who worked at one two summers ago and her stories of first-aid for the kids was that of terrifing scrambles.

Ann Adams 1-24-2006 @ 3:52PM

Our elementary school nurse rotates from school to school. The middle school nurse never seems to be there; she's always someplace else.

Enough nurses to go around? Of course not. That would cost tax money and it took us 3 tries to get the last bond issue passed (for much less than what was needed, just to repair plumbing, etc.

I don't know about medication but we should have something in place. I may try to find out. I haven't had to deal with it yet.

We give lip service to public education with NCLB but it's a joke - the whole thing. And no, I'm not blaming the teachers or local people.