Why school nurses are more important than ever today
COVID 19 has brought to the fore one of the most pressing challenges schools face today.
The lack of a school nurse.
Did you know that the CDC recommended school nurse to student ratio is 1:750?
And now with the pandemic spreading across the nation, the lack of school nurses to care for students’ mental and physical health is a growing concern in schools.
It forces children to cope with the changes they mostly don’t understand as well as the unconventional ways of learning that have come to become the new normal.
Studies show that
35%schools employed only a part-time nurse and |
23%schools did not have a school nurse at all. |
Why children’s welfare and medication safety matters
The health of our children is the health of our nation’s future.
Rates of chronic health conditions continue to increase and become more complex. And there’s been a steady rise in the number of outbreaks of communicable diseases like measles and pertussis.
There’s also been reports of increasing number of cases of children with mental and behavioural health issues such as depression, school/personal violence, and bullying.
18% to 20%of children in the US are experiencing a mental health issue each year. |
And as schools reopen amid the pandemic, which coincides with the seasonal asthma and allergy outbreaks, guidance of medical professional is a critical need for childcare.
The role of the school nurse
School nurses hold an indispensable role as the healthcare expert onboard who can help children with their challenges. In their role, they:
- Battle growing rates of chronic health conditions
- Manage outbreaks of communicable illnesses in the school
- Care for children with mental and behavioral issues
- Ensure immunizations are current
- Administer medications and check dosages
- Tend to injuries and emotional breakdowns in children
- Screen students for COVID 19 symptoms
- Help set up protocols to control the spread of the virus in schools
Long story short, they hold a very critical place.
But the fact is, most schools don’t even have a school nurse.
The challenges school nurses face
School nurses face multiple challenges every day in their roles. While caring for children, they must also ensure that they work with:
Heavy administrative workloads
School nurses take care of children’s health needs and related administrative tasks like:
- Updating student health forms
- Maintaining their immunization and health records
- Communicating with parents and health authorities
And when nurses manage these critical details for more than 1000 students, their job can very complicated. Not to mention the situations where an emergency arises, and nurses must scramble through the documents to find the right health information.
And deal with a general lack of resources
Some nurses work in offices with little or no room for social distancing.
Some others mention the challenges of managing multiple paper health records which consumes time meant for caring for students.
And we know that’s not all.
So, we’ve been thinking of what we can do to address these issues. And we want the experts, school nurses like you, to share your thoughts on what can be done to help thousands of other school nurses like you make your jobs easier.
So, take this quick survey to help us help you.
EduHealth is an organization dedicated to helping school nurses manage student healthcare. We’re committed to enabling school nurses with solutions that let them care better for students.
With the survey, we aim to understand from you the challenges that you face in your job so that they guide us in building the right solutions to help you.
We hope you’ll spare a few minutes of your time to complete this quick survey to help the larger school nurse community.
