Do you think that nurses in the school makes a difference in the health of school aged children? If so how many students should be cared for by one nurse? According to a scholarly article "Does the School Nurse-to-Student Ratio Make a Difference?" by Martha Gutto, Martha Engelke, and Melvin Swanson, there has been little research to examine the benefits of a decrease in student to nurse ratio. In this article, it was stated that, "a significant correlation was found between the increased presence of school nurses and services provided to children [with chronic conditions]" (Gutto, Engelke, Swanson, 2004).
The goal of the health care bill is to mandate that there must be a ratio of one nurse to every one thousand students in any given school. There are no current laws regulating the number of students being cared for by one nurse. Today, one nurse can be responsible for up to eight thousand students covering multiple schools in the area. The government hope in reducing the nurse to student ratio is the prevention of further complications regarding student's health condition as well as preventive measures against developing diseases. One of the most important roles of the nurse is to provide education; therefore, if there are less students per nurse, the nurse can focus on education and prevention rather then simply treating symptoms. Nurses provide education on nutrition, exercise, safe practices, proper hygiene, and the importance of health screenings and vaccinations to students as well as their parents. The use of education can decrease the number of health issues that students could develop later on, including type II diabetes, obesity, eating disorders, sexually transmitted diseases, unplanned pregnancies, vision and hearing problems, scoliosis, and lice.The education that the nurses would be available to provide to students and families could lead to a potential decrease in governmental health care costs.
Possible political influences can be brought to government attention from the parents, teachers, and nurses. The parents may complain about the lack of care that their child is receiving and the concern that their child may not be given their medication when needed. The teachers may contact the government and complain that their students are out of class for long periods of time, which can disrupt the teachers plans for group activities, as well as increasing the work load on the teacher because of having to re-teach the material. Nurses face problems with the high ratio of students to care for and feel like this could cause potential negative outcomes for the students health.
By setting a standard for the number of students per nurse in the school systems, the workload of school nurses will be decreased. This bill would allow great access for the students to preventive care, and ensure that they receive the care that they need. The health care system could potentially benefit by this bill by decreasing further health care costs.
What do you think? Have you or anyone you know been affected by a lack of school nurse presence?
Source:
Gutto, M., Engelke, M., & Swanson, M. (2004). Does the school nurse-to-student ratio make a difference?. Journal of School Health, 1(74), 06-09. Retrieved from http://ehis.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=0b4466f0-f963-4450-8ad3-ccb297d5cd1c@sessionmgr104&vid=4&hid=120
Group 8 agrees with this proposed legislation to decrease the nurse-student ratio in schools. It's extremely important that qualified staffing is available for the school-aged population in the event of emergencies. Complications from injuries or other health events can be minimized if the situation is handled properly and in a timely manner by registered nurses. The role of the nurse as educator is especially important in the younger population to build a foundation for healthy choices in their lifetime. We were wondering if there would need to be some kind of encouragement for nurses to move into the school nursing environment. New grads are typically encouraged to join the hospital staff to enhance skills. However, more experienced nurses usually see the benefit of school nursing (summers off, vacations, etc.)but would there be enough RNs willing to move from hospital care to school care? It would certainly open up more job opportunities and require additional funding.
ReplyDeleteWe agree that school nurses should care for a decreased number of students in order to provide proper education to students as well as to the parents, decrease incidence of injuries, and providing resources and health care in a timely manner to prevent further complications of the student’s health condition. The proposed legislation seems to have only positive outcomes on the health of the school-aged population. On the other hand, group 8 makes an excellent point on if there is any encouragement for nurses to move from the hospital setting to the school nursing environment. We feel as if there is only a selected portion of the nursing population that would choose this path as most new grads and less experienced nurses are influenced to go into a hospital care setting. As increasing the amount of nurses in the school setting would help allow students to have greater access to preventative care and ensure proper treatment, which in turn may benefit the health care system by decreasing further health care costs; it would also require additional funding because of the increased jobs.
ReplyDelete-Group 11