Teachers Get Nurse Duty as Schools Are Squeezed (crosspost from GD)

[SarahB]

National average is 1 nurse for every 1,151 students

During the past two school years, teacher Julia Keyse had to enforce an unusual rule in her kindergarten and first-grade classroom: No interrupting while she pricked Caylee's finger to check her blood sugar and adjusted her insulin pump.

"They were so good. They would just sit and wait," Keyse said of her class at Etowah Elementary School in Henderson County, NC.

It's a task Keyse never imagined when she became a teacher, but medical duties have become a part of the job for educators across the country as schools cut nursing staff or require nurses to work at multiple locations. The change comes at a time when more students are dealing with serious medical conditions, such as severe allergies, asthma and diabetes.

It's a change that's unsettling for teachers, school nurses and parents.

"We don't want to pretend to be doctors or nurses," Keyse said. "I would have gone to school for that."

snip

http://nursing.advanceweb.com/Article/Teachers-Get-Nurse-Duty-as-Schools-Are-Squeezed.aspx

[no_hypocrisy]

1. I wonder what the insurance carrier for the schools have to say about

uncertified personnel acting in the capacity of nursing staff. If a child comes in with uncontrolled asthma or bleeding, do you want a nurse or a teacher taking care of him or her?

[SarahB]

2. As an RN (married to a teacher no less) with two asthmatic children...

the nurse obviously. Part of the other problem is lack of pay for school nurses. Despite the responsibility, they make about 2/3 of what those of us who work in hospitals make. Still not enough for school districts though apparently.