No seriously, there's a (school) nursing shortage

[ruby_jane, BSN, RN]

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/nurse-shortages-at-schools-could-be-putting-your-child-at-risk/

Interesting.

Interesting article. I don't think having a nurse in that particular case would have saved him since it sounds like people trained in CPR were performing it and he still died. Sad story all around.

I think the issues are low budgets and the pay scales are terrible. I am paid fairly well as a school nurse, but still well below what I would make in a physician's office or hospital. BUT I have a 20 minute commute, free parking, etc. Trade-offs for sure. I am actually leaving my FT position and going to sub next year as much as I can. We got lucky and found someone to fill my position but it was definitely SLIM pickings.

[NutmeggeRN, BSN]

When school districts start valuing the knowledge and expertise that our profession has...then maybe. I'm in a good place in comparison to many. But I know that I will never be allowed into the union...they want as few contracts in it as possible to keep the overall $$ numbers down, and there are only 3 of us.

#Everychilddeservesaschoolnurse

[Jedrnurse, BSN, RN]

1 minute ago, NutmeggeRN said:

When school districts start valuing the knowledge and expertise that our profession has...then maybe. I'm in a good place in comparison to many. But I know that I will never be allowed into the union...they want as few contracts in it as possible to keep the overall $$ numbers down, and there are only 3 of us.

#Everychilddeservesaschoolnurse

That's a shame. In most places in my state nurses are on the teacher's contract.

[NutmeggeRN, BSN]

25 minutes ago, Jedrnurse said:

That's a shame. In most places in my state nurses are on the teacher's contract.

Yup~

[OyWithThePoodles, RN]

In our district we definitely aren't paid on a teacher scale, in fact many of the RN's are in "LPN positions", meaning they get an LPN's salary.

I agree that every school should have a nurse, it's just common sense to me, but I see why there isn't, until the you know what hits the fan when something tragic happens, they don't really see our worth.

[EnoughWithTheIce]

While I am always going to advocate for a school nurse in every school building, I don't know if it would have changed the outcome in this case. Is it sometimes a false sense of security?? It is not like we have advanced life support equipment at hand.

I have been doing school nursing for 13 years now and it is starting to wear me down. Kids, staff, parents expect that I am a free standing ER and can and should be able to diagnose / fix anything and everything.

It sounds like the staff responded appropriately by starting CPR and calling 911. There is no mention of an AED being used.....

It states the child had an underlying heart condition so the collapse could have happened just as easily at home or at the mall. I feel so bad for these parents for their tragic loss. However, if a school nurse had been there to do CPR and the same outcome happened - then, the nurse probably would be blamed for being negligent.

[jess11RN]

I don't know if a nurse could have helped in that emergency situation then and there. Maybe he did just unexpectedly collapse, BUT, maybe there were signs that were missed earlier that month, week, day. If there was a nurse in the building full time that knew him, knew of his diagnosis, and managed his care, maybe he wouldn't have gotten to that point.

[Glitternurse, LVN]

I agree having a nurse on site probably would not have changed the outcome. The article says the school didn't know about the heart condition, so either it was undiagnosed or the family didn't inform the school. The nurse may have seen the student prior, and may have been able to determine something was going on and maybe not depending on how the student presented, what complaint they had, and how the interventions worked. I would love to have some trained medical person at each school (and I know the secretaries here would too). I am an LVN and I am under the district RN, between us we have 6 sites. This is only my second year, prior to me being hired the RN did it all herself. I think if we had a medically trained "nurse" (RN, LVN, MA, CNA) at each site it would be fantastic. I certainly don't know all 3,000 students. I know the students with chronic illness and daily medication needs, but I don't even know every student that has an inhaler or epi-pen at school. I recognize their name on paper, but unless they come to the health office frequently I don't know who they are.

We are not valued and our position is not understood and until it is there won't be any "extra" money in the budget to staff the health office. I overheard a teacher tell a student that the nurses job is to hand out bandaids and ice packs, that is all they see as our worth, they don't see the million other things we do. I mean honestly, teachers can't even manage to tell a student to get some water and put their head on the desk when they complain of a headache after playing out side. Even though every year a letter is sent out reminding staff the symptoms of dehydration.

[Flare, ASN, BSN]

this, much like the nursing shortage in the hospital world - is created by the administration. The solution is simple - hire more nurses and staff better (oh, and pay better!). You'll get better patient (student) care, better job satisfaction in your employees, and less job turnover. It usually takes a tragedy for school districts to value their nursing department and in the interim they work us to death, taking our lunches, and overwhelming us with outrageous student: nurse ratios. Stay vocal. Let your admins know it's not safe. Chances are it won't change any time soon, but with your good (CYA) charting and carrying your own malpractice (the best $126 ever spent) you can sleep well knowing that you have done all you can do.