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Safety First?
Does Your Child's School Have a Nurse?
By Jennifer Lacey
Imagine this scenario: You're the parent of a type 1 diabetic child enrolled in a public elementary school. Every school day, your little girl has to administer her daily insulin injection without the supervision of a full-time nurse on duty.
Unfortunately, this scenario plays true in many of our nation's schools. Parents today often are under the false assumption that a nurse is on staff for the entire length of their child's school day. According to a survey conducted in 2001 by the National Association of School Nurses (NASN), only 14 states in the United States have mandated, full-time nurses in their elementary to senior high schools. This comes during a time when more school-aged children are in need of specialized medical care and supervision than ever before.
She believes school nurses help create a special bond between parents and children who require specialized care. "School nurses have the opportunity to really know and care for students as well as their families, since you often care for several siblings over a period of years," she says. "The relationships that I develop with the students and their families is incredibly rewarding and it is important to me to have the chance to make a positive impact on a child's life."
The impact to which Schoessler refers may involve something as simple as providing a bandage after a fall on the playground or as difficult as administering life saving CPR. Unfortunately, cash-strapped school districts around the nation are cutting school nurses from their budgets, along with the valuable services they provide. Presently, these same districts may rely instead upon untrained school personnel to perform duties they are not medically qualified to provide.
"The community, even the school community, is not aware of the role of the school nurse," says Harriet Weinbaum, RN, BSN and legislative chairperson of the New York State Association of School Nurses (NYSASN), who believes the public has to "ensure that the staff who service their school children are the most highly trained to deal with the health issues brought to school everyday."
