Canada does not have nurses in each school in each province. They make it work somehow.
To give a real life example, when I was in a hospital recently, the nurses weren’t allowed to dispense extra Tylenol without authorization from the on call MD. So I doubt there’s not much a RN could do for those kids that couldn’t be done by a teacher(remind Johnny to check his blood glucose every two hours). If Johnny is a teen, he is should be capable of remembering to check his blood glucose on his own.
For people with the argument of not living on $80, 000. Chicago is an extremely affordable city to live in. So many neighborhoods to choose from. Not everybody needs to live downtown or Lincoln Park. But yes… Taxes suck.
^^California doesn’t have nurses at every school either…
An interesting perspective, hopefully not deemed too political - it’s certainly not my intent
https://patch.com/illinois/chicago/ctu-strike-political-circus-no-road-contract-deal
No teachers don’t need to also have to worry about reminding Johnny to check his glucose levels every two hours. Should they also take a 2 minute break each morning to be sure students are taking their birth control? Counseling them on STD’s? Keeping a log/record of a student’s ailments to potentially target in on a illness/diagnosis?
Can you imagine in a large elementary school or high school the kids that travel though the nurses office daily to help monitor their medical or emotional needs?
Our schools have a nurse and an assistant in every single health room. And they are plenty busy doing all sorts of health related and important things. Gone are the days when the nurse just was there to had out ice packs and band aids. Our nurses are the medical professionals in each building. They do these things…and I’m sure this isn’t the end of the list.
- Deal with children and staff who become sick or injured at work. This includes filling out things like accident reports and workmen’s comp forms.
- The nurses are involved in crafting and implementing health plans for students who need them. This includes students with chronic as well as acute medical needs.
- Our nurses dispense all RX to students who need medications during the school day. That takes a lot of time.
- The nurses help with students who have durable medical equipment and need this in school. This is addressed in a health plan most of the time...but it can be a big job depending on student medical need.
- Nurses (in our school the assistants do this) make calls to each absent child’s family..every morning.
- They do all hearing and vision screenings in the schools. This includes mandatory state screenings of all students in grades K and 2 but also referrals when students are referred for special education assessments. Ruling out hearing and vision issues is the first step.
- Our nurses attend all IEP meetings for students with medical needs...either to determine their involvement with a new case, or to report on what they have done.
- Our nurses are the interface with the local EMS services.
- They arrange for and attend CPR and first aid training for any staff interested...this is done annually.
- When classes go on field trips, the nurses package things needed for students to have while away from the building. If necessary, they actually go on these field trips, and a substitute nurse is hired to manage the building needs.
Our school nurses are invaluable.
I’m just astonished that some areas of the country don’t have school nurses in their schools. I’ve never heard of a school in NJ not having one, pretty sure it’s required. And they not only need to be RN’s, but have an Education Certification as well.
We didn’t have full time school nurses in OH either.
In Ca, we stopped having 1 nurse per school back in the dark ages. I remember growing up when we went from a school nurse in elementary school to a nurse that was only on campus 4 hours per day to a nurse on campus 2 hours a day to a nurse on call…
@garland and that’s why we have some of the best public schools in the country. Not perfect, certainly, but I’ll keep paying my taxes until my kids are all out of school!
None of the schools I attended had a school nurse and somehow the students survived. “Keeping a log/record of a student’s ailments to potentially target in on a illness/diagnosis?” sounds like it’s going outside the scope of practice for a nurse. Nurses shouldn’t be attempting to diagnose students. If student’s have ailments that require diagnosis, they should be taking those complaints to their PCP not the school nurse. Likewise, if a student suspects they have a STD, they should be seeing their PCP not the school nurse.
Hate to judge, but I’m really feeling for kids here, especially seniors. Having senior at home (not Chicago) going through the application process now can’t imagine what kind of stress Chicago seniors going through. They need their transcripts, LORs, essays reviewed ect… ACT is canceled… could be someone’s last chance to improve the score… Did they really need to to do that to these kids???
I am sure that a nurse assigned to a school can keep busy, as can a psychologist, social worker, counselor, reading specialist, math specialist, behavior modification expert, etc etc. The question is what is essential in times of lean budgets. Chicago schools have severe problems, but I rather doubt a nurse will help.
My sister-in-law is the nurse at our school, she is an LPN but that doesn’t seem to be a problem.
Students should go to their PCP with concerns about an STD? That’s assuming they have one. SO many people do not have a medical home. Also wouldn’t it be GREAT for students to get preventative info about avoiding getting an STD? - nurses can do that.
To say that a teacher could step in for a nurse who has medical training of 2-4 years or more is a discredit to the nursing profession. Shame.
Didn’t say nurses would be diagnosing a situation. Although they certainly can make recommendations on common illnesses. But if a student comes to the nurses office 2 or 3 times a month that will be documented and could provide valuable info for a PCP or urgent care or ER to see a pattern of a medical symptom or behavior.
“Look for the helpers” they said. Oh, sorry. We had to let the helpers go.
Chicago Public Schools stats:
“Over 40 percent of CPS students are overweight or obese, over 25 percent suffer from behavioral health issues, 13 percent suffer from asthma and a significant number of students come to school with oral health issues, vision and hearing deficits and diabetes.”
There is one nurse for every 2000 CPS students.
I never went to a school with a nurse.
My kids did not go to schools with nurses. Their daycare had a program run by Children’s Hospital so there were nurses for the 10 kids in that program. They helped out once when my daughter was on oxygen for a few days, but there weren’t there for the other 90+ kids, just for those 10.
One of mine went to a charter school (k-12) and you never saw so many inhalers, meds, epi pens, ADHD pills, etc in your LIFE. When they went on a big week-long trip to Memphis, each bus had a huge bag (like the size of a laundry bag) of meds that each child had to turn in. My daughter was one of the only kids NOT on some kind of medication and they kept asking me where her meds were!
In public schools, I think it is the paras or aids who attend to the students for every day needs like inhalers or care in the classroom. My sister* is a 4th grade teacher and she’s received training in epi pens and other emergency care, but doesn’t dispense meds in the classroom. Some of her students have paras assigned if they have more medical needs.
*And she doesn’t make anywhere NEAR $82K per year. I think for their strike last year they were hoping to get the average up to $60k for all teachers. New teachers make closer to $40k.
I don’t doubt many children have medical needs. An even larger number likely have serious dental needs, but we do not provide a dentist in any school. I do think it is reasonable to ask what we are demanding of our schools besides education-An ever increasing burden of addressing other’s failures in parenting, socioeconomic ills, psychiatric issues, the list is endless. Are these all the school’s job to address?
Those numbers are likely similar to the general population, including adults, and likely are no different than many other school districts (that don’t provide onsite nursing).