The fight for school nurses, Google Translate and discharge instructions, and ‘Medicare for All’ calls get louder

School nursing as a very specialized field of nursing that requires extended knowledge and critical thinking skills beyond those in the acute care/hospital setting.? Most often you are the only healthcare provider in the school and teachers and administrators rely on your expertise to care for students with chronic and emergent health conditions.? I appreciate seeing teachers standing up and demanding more school nurses to keep their children healthy and safe.? Collaboration between teachers and the school health team is imperative to the success of each student, every day.? Yet teachers and school nurses are some of the most underpaid staff members within the school.? While I'm sure these professions are respected scholastically, more respect needs to be shown in the form of annual salary and contract raises. ?

I previously worked as a school in nurse. It is very easy to understand why teachers want a school nurse. Today’s students have serious health conditions. I believe the teachers want to focus on educating the student. In a school system, if each school building has a RN, the RN can take care of the health concerns, and the teacher can focus on teaching. Today’s students have many health issues like asthma, diabetes, sickle cell anemia, seizures. These conditions require more than just bandaids and ice packs.

I am grateful to hear my sentiments echoed in so many of these comments. School Nursing is a island at times, and I won't hesitate to tell anyone who asks-it's the hardest nursing job I've ever had! Sometimes people laugh because of the perception that we hand out bandaids and ice packs, but I and many colleagues are? working hard to change that perception.? There is a lot of direct patient care, with students who have diabetes, asthma, cancer, G-tubes, severe physical disabilities, eating disorders, anxiety, and trauma of all sorts, just to list a few.? My ability to provide care for and advocate for these students helps them to not only be in a public school setting, but also to be SUCCESSFUL in and even thrive in a public school setting.? We have issues with access to care where I live and work-an isolated rural community with the nearest general hospital nearly 100 miles away, so I work daily with families in obtaining access to care, especially under insured and immigrant families with few resources.? I serve 4 schools, and am the only nurse.? I serve in many capacities with both students and staff.? I teach Reduce the Risk to improve outcomes in youth in regards to sexuality and family planning. I teach CPR to students and staff.? I do a lot of education on different health related topics and try to make a visible outreach to students and staff in many ways.? I love my job!? It is the highest paid nursing job?? Not even close, but the rewards are many.? We are on the front line for medical care in children, and I sincerely hope that society is starting to realize the value of having nurses in schools.??

I have been a nurse for 54 years. Ive done urology, hemodialysis, , med/surg, or, telementry, nursing home, neurology,OB/gyn,ent,opthamology.These have included direct patient care, teaching, administration.Ive worked in hospitals,home care, physician offices and University clinic.The past 12 years have been school nursing. School nursing is not so much unlike acute care nursing. Having a nurse in the . school allows for children , who have chronic , serious health problems to attend school in the regular educational facility setting, not at home or special facilities. We give meds (all routes),immunizations.? we do feeding tubes, dialysis,dressings,? IV treatments, pain management, seizures, diabetes care,breathing treatments,and on and on.About the only thing,we dont do is surgery. we teach students,parents and school staff about health conditions and how to manage their on health. we give encourage and support. We teach First Aid to everyone. We not only teach CPR but sometimes have to initiate till EMT gets here. WE teach and encourage Wellness and prevention We must know and follow State and Federal laws .Yes, most? of the time, we work 8-5. No more weekends , holidays .Some of us work summer break? and or special sessions.We are required to update our? education, at our own expense and our own time, We get paid much less, making at least a third of what e would make in the hospital/acute care.That meager pay for 9months is spread over a year. We see children that their chronic health problems may be emotional as well as physical when They come to school with the trauma of abuse, neglect, hunger.? Sometimes we have to make split second decisions, without the benefit of a physician, or even a second nurse, and hope? it was the right decision. But its a rewarding area of nursing because? maybe we help children to make it thru difficult times and enable them to make abetter life for t hemself.? We are needed? and we need to be treated with respect as we help shape the lives of your children.

I have been a nurse for 27 years; 1 in Urgent Care, 8 in pediatric office, 4 in ED, 4 in Hospital- Med Surg; the last 10 as a high school nurse. I too took a huge cut in pay to come to work at the school, but it really is not about the money! I thought I could finish my career here. I also was having nurse "burn out". The school district I work for has a RN in every school, some have 2 or with a LPN. The high school I'm at has 700 students 9th to 12th grades. I have several students with anxiety and other mental health problems, asthma, seizures, cerabal palsy, and even organ transplant!? You truly have be confident in your skills, because you are the only health professional in the school. I agree with almost all of the comments. I believe every school in the United States should have a nurse in every school. We are seeing more students with health problems, that may have not went to school in the past. You have to be a detective, try to figure out if the student is really ill or just wanting to leave school!