A Nurse for Every School

The News & Record published the following from Robin Lane, chair of Guilford County Project ONE:

A nurse in every school
By Robin Lane

Readers who care about the health of our children have lots to consider as they learn about the critical shortage of nurses in Guilford County’s public schools. Numbers tell the story. Guilford County employs 33 nurses to care for 73,000 students, resulting in a ratio of 1 nurse for every 2,200 students, far short of a decades-old recommendation of a nurse for every 750 students.

This is a crisis indeed, one that is rooted in neglect. In 2002, the county had the same number of nurses as today. But this school year, that same number of nurses serves 10,000 more students in 25 additional schools, plunging Guilford County to No. 111 of the 115 school systems in North Carolina in rankings of nurse-to-student ratios.

The statistics are bad enough, but this is about more than numbers. It is about kids needing insulin injections, asthma medications, medical procedures and sophisticated counseling. It is about asking teachers to teach and then do more. In the end, it is about not using our tax dollars wisely.

Research shows that one nurse for every school, recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics, would:

• Improve student achievement. A nurse on site brings more bang to the buck for the dollars we spend on buildings, books and people, keeping kids healthy and in school learning.
• Attain better health for students, way beyond Band-Aids, bandages and calls to EMS. A fully staffed school nurse program helps kids avoid the risk of costly preventable problems such as unintended pregnancy or undiagnosed, deeply personal mental health issues. When immediately available, nurses can identify and refer students to the resources they need, allowing teachers to concentrate on teaching.
• Give families peace of mind. Not only for parents of students with serious medical issues but for every parent who worries about leaving a job to pick up a child who might stay in the classroom if only there were a nurse to accurately sort out symptoms.
• Strengthen essential links between school and health care. Nurses are case managers, connecting home, school and health providers. They are uniquely able to access school records as well as student health records, which means they can contribute critical information to planning efforts while enhancing the effectiveness of work done in medical offices.
• School nurses are front-line health workers recognized for the important role they play in improving health in our community.

There is good news on the horizon. An ad hoc committee composed of members of the county’s Health and Human Services Advisory Committee is working on the issue and has started the Guilford County Project ONE initiative. Project ONE has as its goal the hiring of one nurse for every school. Our motto says it all: “Good health is necessary for academic success and nurses make good health happen. Period.”

We invite you to join us. Please learn more about the work of the committee at www.guilfordcountyprojectone.info as we identify our own Guilford County solutions.

Let’s get this done. One nurse in every school!

Robin Lane, RN, PNP, MPH, is a former school nurse and pediatric nurse practitioner and is vice chair of the Guilford County Health and Human Services Advisory Committee and chair of the Project ONE initiative.