Shortage of Nurses: The School Nursing Experience

[NRSKarenRN, BSN, RN]

© 2007 online journal of issues in nursing

article published february 26, 2007

shortage of nurses: the school nursing experience

the purpose of this column is to examine the problem of a shortage of school nurses in public schools in the united states. areas of focus include the role of school nurses in schools, the definition of ‘school nurse,’ the major reason for the school nurse shortage, the use of unlicensed assistive personnel (uap) to provide nursing services in schools, and recommendations for alleviating the shortage of school nurses.

recent articles indicate that there is a critical shortage of school nurses in public school districts across the nation. horovitz and mccoy (2005) reported "an analysis of 2004 census data by usa today showed roughly 56,000 nurses worked full time at schools. that’s one for every 950 students, a ratio that fails to meet federal guidelines that call for one nurse for every 750 students" (p.1). according to magnuson (2002), "the united states department of health and human services (usdhhs) recommends at least one nurse per 750 students in well populations (that ratio changes when students with disabilities are considered)." similarly, the national association of school nurses (nasn) recommends a maximum of one school nurse to 750 regular education students (green, 2006).

a look at individual states may reveal an even grimmer picture. in california, for example, the school nurse to student ratio can be as high as one nurse to 5,000 students or more, as is the case with this author who has a work load of approximately 5,000 students.

[Sheri257]

Well ... I had a friend who had to wait two years before she could be hired as a school nurse, mostly because the school districts had cut back on those positions in favor of hiring cheaper UAP's.

If the student to nurse ratios are bad, it's not necessarily a shortage of available RN's but an unwillingness of the school districts to pay for those positions ... at least in my area.

:typing

[jjjoy, LPN]

:yeahthat:

[Simplepleasures]

So how can the government alleviate this funding problem without some screaming about tax increases, OR were these programs cut back, how can the funds be reinstated without public outcry?