Introduction
The nation is suffering from a shortage of school nurses. (Camera, 2016) This shortage has hit the Philadelphia area forcefully due to severe budget cuts and a large population of chronically ill students. Within the Philadelphia Public School System, the current laws regulating nurse ratios place the nurse to student ratio at 1 nurse for every 1,500 students. In many cases, this means that a nurse must travel between schools in order to provide care, even to the detriment of students. In the 2014-2015 school year, two students died following medical incidents precipitating during the school day when a school nurse was not present. When coverage of school nurses is not sufficient to meet student needs, the quality, and even existence, …show more content…
(2004) This list of responsibilities includes screening for chronic conditions as well as education on drugs and alcohol, school violence, and teenage pregnancy. In the Philadelphia School District, these important services are currently provided by an inadequate number of school nurses, even though recommendations for school nurse coverage provided by the federal government’s Healthy People Report, the National Association of School Nurses (NASN), as well as the American Nurses’ Association (ANA), all recommend a minimum nurse to student ratio of 1:750. Even in the face of these recommendations, Philadelphia’s Public School System has reduced the number of school nurses in the district from 289 in 2011 to 179 in the 2013-14 school year. (Superville, 2016) This turmoil in nursing coverage led the non-profit legal organization, The Education Law Center, to ask the question, “How is the school nurse shortage affecting children?” (McInerney & McKlindon, …show more content…
Socioeconomically disadvantaged students are associated with a higher prevalence of poor health (Schreier and Chen, 2013). For this reason, where students live and go to school can have long-term impacts. The Philadelphia School District has a large population of these at-risk children. (Demographic Profiles, 2016) The school nurse has a role that fills these gaps in health that are influenced by social determinants of health. The increased placement of school nurses in the Philadelphia School District would appeal to the concept of efficiency, or “the most productive use of limited resources,” as a limited amount of school nurses would be able to make a significant impression on the health of disadvantaged students. (Anderson, 2016a) Increasing the nurse to student ratio would make a larger impact on this socioeconomically disadvantaged population than in other areas that have heath resources outside of the school building. (School Nurse Workload,
The nation is suffering from a shortage of school nurses. (Camera, 2016) This shortage has hit the Philadelphia area forcefully due to severe budget cuts and a large population of chronically ill students. Within the Philadelphia Public School System, the current laws regulating nurse ratios place the nurse to student ratio at 1 nurse for every 1,500 students. In many cases, this means that a nurse must travel between schools in order to provide care, even to the detriment of students. In the 2014-2015 school year, two students died following medical incidents precipitating during the school day when a school nurse was not present. When coverage of school nurses is not sufficient to meet student needs, the quality, and even existence, …show more content…
(2004) This list of responsibilities includes screening for chronic conditions as well as education on drugs and alcohol, school violence, and teenage pregnancy. In the Philadelphia School District, these important services are currently provided by an inadequate number of school nurses, even though recommendations for school nurse coverage provided by the federal government’s Healthy People Report, the National Association of School Nurses (NASN), as well as the American Nurses’ Association (ANA), all recommend a minimum nurse to student ratio of 1:750. Even in the face of these recommendations, Philadelphia’s Public School System has reduced the number of school nurses in the district from 289 in 2011 to 179 in the 2013-14 school year. (Superville, 2016) This turmoil in nursing coverage led the non-profit legal organization, The Education Law Center, to ask the question, “How is the school nurse shortage affecting children?” (McInerney & McKlindon, …show more content…
Socioeconomically disadvantaged students are associated with a higher prevalence of poor health (Schreier and Chen, 2013). For this reason, where students live and go to school can have long-term impacts. The Philadelphia School District has a large population of these at-risk children. (Demographic Profiles, 2016) The school nurse has a role that fills these gaps in health that are influenced by social determinants of health. The increased placement of school nurses in the Philadelphia School District would appeal to the concept of efficiency, or “the most productive use of limited resources,” as a limited amount of school nurses would be able to make a significant impression on the health of disadvantaged students. (Anderson, 2016a) Increasing the nurse to student ratio would make a larger impact on this socioeconomically disadvantaged population than in other areas that have heath resources outside of the school building. (School Nurse Workload,