School Nursing

The Relentless School Nurse: Unsustainable Workloads are Crushing School Nurses Across the Country

When I spoke at my school board meeting last month asking for additional supports, one of the board members publically commented “When health professionals ask for help, we need to listen.” I will be speaking at this month’s meeting as a follow up to the requests that so far have gone unanswered.

I encourage all of our colleagues to read the letter featured in this post. It was presented by 115 Columbus City school nurses to their Superintendent and Board of Education. The letter details the intolerable workload, unsafe working conditions and lack of consistency in implementing public health mitigation strategies. The school nurses lay out a compelling argument to support additional staff and clerical assistance because of the added responsibilities related to contact tracing. They calculate 2,410 collective years of nursing experience in their group, what a brilliant data point! 

Kudos to this group of highly seasoned school nurses. I wish them well in their pursuit of tolerable and safe working conditions, which no one should ever have to fight for, yet here we are.  

The following letter was retrieved from Columbus City Schools nurses plead for help, saying they’re overworked, overwhelmed Megan Henry The Columbus Dispatch

 

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