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Schools

School crisis: too few nurses

The school district pleads for help in handling the mounting health needs of students.

By THERESA BLACKWELL
Published January 28, 2007

For years, nurses in most Pinellas County schools have tried to do the impossible: provide health services for thousands of students in several schools, usually by spending just one day a week on a particular campus.

On the other four days, school secretaries, clerks and others must pick up the slack for such tasks as administering student medications.

While resources for school medical services have stagnated, the medical needs of Pinellas students are exploding, school health officials say. And the problem is reaching a crisis point.

At a meeting in Largo on Tuesday, the school district's School Health Advisory Committee issued "A Call to Action for Students' Health." The goal is to impress key leaders from the medical community and across the county with the depth of the problem and ask for their help in providing for students' safety and health care.

A May 2005 story in the St. Petersburg Times found:

- 110 of the county's 137 schools had a registered nurse on site just one day a week.

- Each of those nurses served an average of 4,350 students in five or six schools. Federal and industry guidelines recommend a ratio of one registered nurse per 750 students.

- A third of the school district's registered nurses had resigned that school year, many finding jobs with less responsibility and more pay.

- Nonmedical school staff members were trained to give out medications, eye drops, ear drops, inject Epipens for allergic reactions, monitor blood-sugar levels in diabetic children and much more.

- In addition to registered nurses, neighboring county school districts used far more supplementary health services employees. In Pasco County, the staffing average was two or three schools per registered nurse, with a health assistant in every school. Hillsborough had roughly the same ratio of registered nurses as Pinellas, but 10 times as many licensed practical nurses and five times as many certified nursing assistants and health aides.

Not much has changed.

Peggy Johns, the Pinellas County schools supervisor of pre-K-12 health education, said funds from the state are not adequate for relieving the situation.

She said other school districts in the state that get more support from their local communities are able to lower nurse-to-student ratios and provide more services.

"They have hospitals, hospital foundations and children's boards stepping up to the plate," she said.

On a panel of principals from five county schools, several shared a telling familiarity with medical terms.

"I've been trained on how to give a valium enema," said Sue Boyd, principal of Azalea Elementary School in St. Petersburg. "And that is a scary thing for a principal."

Besides that, she said her school secretary and other staff are tied up with checking blood-sugar levels and ketones in diabetic children. And they are making medical decisions.

"We need nurses," she said. "Every school does."

Dr. Rani Gereige, a health advisory committee member and associate director of the University of South Florida residency training program at All Children's Hospital, said USF is trying to think outside the box to get more doctors involved in school health services.

A new adopt-a-school program that started this school year pairs residents trained to act as school health consultants with a school of their choice for three years.

Rita Becchetti, supervisor of Pinellas County school health services, outlined a five-year plan for the schools that would ultimately lead to a registered nurse for every two or three schools in one geographic area, with a certified nursing assistant in every school.

Pinellas School Board member Linda Lerner said she was convinced of the problem's urgency as she listened to the principals. She said the district doesn't have the money for the plan unless community partners help.

If you would like to help, call Peggy Johns at 727 588-6346 or Rita Becchetti at (727) 588-6320.

Theresa Blackwell can be reached at tblackwell@sptimes.com or at (727) 445-4170.

[Last modified January 28, 2007, 08:02:56]