My district has gone from 14 nurses to 3.5 in 5 years

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Specializes in Community & Mental Health, Sp Ed nursing.

and the job description hasn't changed in that time. Also, my boss told me today that he wants to have one nurse by 2015 for 16 elementary school, 9 secondary schools and 10 Alt ed/charter schools. Does anyone else have a similar structure?

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Specializes in school nursing, ortho, trauma.

no, we have seven schools and seven nurses.

3.5 nurses for 35 schools absolutely appalls me. The prospect of one nurse positively terrifys me!!

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sounds like a huge liability lawsuit WAITING TO HAPPEN!!!

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Specializes in Community & Mental Health, Sp Ed nursing.

I've heard a rumor that a district somewhere had an issue with there when their district wanted to do the same. Other than filing a labor dispute, I don't know what to do! Our teaching contract does not have ratios in it. The only thing we can go by is the huge job description. FYI- the 2 nurses that will no longer have a position next year have been offered 1:1 classroom positions which means the district "didn't lay any nurses off" and the ratios still look reasonable although only 3 nurses and .5 Sp ed will be handling school nursing work. If anyone has any ideas of what we can do, I 'd really like to know. Our boss is a bully and thinks he can replace us with part-time health aides in the schools.

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Specializes in OB/GYN, Peds, School Nurse, DD.

I see danger on the horizon. I don't understand how school systems can justify the liability of NOT have a professional nurse on site. I have kids in my school who absolutley could not be in school if i was not there. Our secretary and clerks are wonderful people, but they do not feel at all comfortable managing chronic illness. When the school nurse isn't there they tend to send more kids home because they don't know what else to do. And they are really really not comfortable managing my diabetic and tube feeding kids. I'm happy to say that my school district has made some cutbacks in other areas, but they seem to "get it" where student welfare is concerned. We have 10 schools and 13 nurses.

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Specializes in school nursing.
and the job description hasn't changed in that time. Also, my boss told me today that he wants to have one nurse by 2015 for 16 elementary school, 9 secondary schools and 10 Alt ed/charter schools. Does anyone else have a similar structure?

The phrase that frightens me most is "and the job description hasn't changed in that time." It is IMPOSSIBLE for 1 nurse to do the same work as 14. Why don't we go ahead and have just 1 math teacher for the ENTIRE district also and see how that works out...................

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The ratio is supposed to be calculated like an algebra formula - see the

Garcia, A. (2009). Convincing my district to lower the nurse ration to 1:750. NASN School Nurse, 24, 198- 199. http://nas.sagepub.com/content/24/5/198.citation

How have the outcomes changed in the district? Have more kids been absent, dismissed early in day, excluded due to incmmplete immunizations, follow-through on vision and hearing referrals, kids not managed on Asthma Action Plans, Food allergy plans, ER admissions, 911 calls. How has the district, the kids or community sufffered due to the decrease in nurses?

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Specializes in Community & Mental Health, Sp Ed nursing.
The ratio is supposed to be calculated like an algebra formula - see the

Garcia, A. (2009). Convincing my district to lower the nurse ration to 1:750. NASN School Nurse, 24, 198- 199. http://nas.sagepub.com/content/24/5/198.citation

How have the outcomes changed in the district? Have more kids been absent, dismissed early in day, excluded due to incomplete immunizations, follow-through on vision and hearing referrals, kids not managed on Asthma Action Plans, Food allergy plans, ER admissions, 911 calls. How has the district, the kids or community suffered due to the decrease in nurses?

Hi Martha:

The answer to all of the above is yes, and my director does not care. Yes UAP's do not assess well and send kids home costing the district ADA money; yes, there isn't enough time to follow up on hearing and vision screenings and they are not getting done. My district does not exclude when IZ's are not done and though our compliance is good, Tdap will be a challenge.

Our district feels that health aides (UAP's) are more useful than nurses as they help out with the depleted office staff.

Nothing we do matters and I've given up. I'm worried about my license and I'm looking for another job.

Thanks to all for your support.

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I hope you are able to find a position in a district that cares about the value you bring.

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