School Nurses: Tens of Thousands of Oregon Students Have None

Nearly 30,000 students in Oregon have no access to a school nurse, according to a new report from an Oregon Health Authority Task Force. The report found 29,734 students have no access to a school nurse.

The report found that 79 of the state's 197 districts do not provide any nursing services.

According to the report, it's not that staffing situation has gotten worse, it just hasn't gotten better.

The staffing situation statewide is the same as it was in 2008.

The report found that while the nursing situation has remained the same, it's not because the health of students has been improving.

"There has been a significant increase in the number of students attending school with chronic health conditions, many life threatening, which require complex medical treatments and frequent interventions," the report found.

"There is an immediate need for increasing the number of school nurses in Oregon schools."

The report determined that having a nurse in school cuts down on absenteeism. An Oregon student who visited a health room without a nurse was nearly 50 percent more likely to be sent home than if they had been seen by a nurse.

The task force makes several recommendations on how to fix the problem:

• Immediate funding, general fund or other budget line item, is needed for underserved school districts.
• Immediate funding is needed for implementing and maximizing Medicaid billing throughout the state.
• Financially supported interagency collaboration/work group between Oregon Department of Education and the Oregon Health Authority-Public Health Division is needed to develop statewide school nurse standards of practice and continue to implement a coordinated school health model.

Photo Douglas P. Perkins via Wikimedia Commons