School Nurses

Spring Hill State Senator Ginny Brown-Waite recently proposed legislation that would put registered nurses in every elementary school in Florida. Brown-Waite and the Florida Nursing Association claim more highly-trained nurses are needed in our elementary schools.

In "Assignment: Education".. Bill Ratliff takes you to one Bay Area elementary school to give you an idea of the multitude of illnesses and ailments school nurses deal with today

--[Nurse Sue Mclaughlin says:] ".. And the next one.. and next to that car."--

When you think of a school nurse, this may be how you think of one: giving eye tests.. taking temperatures.. applying band-aids. But my.. how the job has changed.

--[Mclaughlin says:] "Okay I'm going to give to you.."--

Sue Mclaughlin is the Head Nurse at Prine Elementary in Bradenton. She says when she became a school nurse she had no idea how complex it would be.

--[Mclaughlin says:] "We have medicines through feeding tubes. We have cathiterizations. We have colostomies. We have open tracheotomies. We have heart monitors."--

And the day we were at Prine, we saw some of those more serious medical treatments. A girl in a wheelchair, who is given medicine.. daily.. through a feeding tube. Another girl who needs to use a special breathing machine, when her asthma kicks up. And a pre-kindergarten boy who must have three special monitors attached to him, during nap time. A specially-trained nurse, who travels to all the Pre-K classes in Manatee County, was there to certify the boy's teachers knew how to correctly operate the special medical equipment. All of this in addition to the dispensing of prescription medicines to 60-children and handling the daily illnesses and accidents. Mclaughlin says she couldn't do it all, without the assistance of trained Health Aide Margie Semonick. But that.. according to the Florida Nursing association.. is the problem. Health aides and licensed practical nurses can handle some health care issues at schools.. but they can't do the work of registered nurses.
And as more medically-fragile children enter school, the need for R-N's grows every year. Mclaughlin couldn't agree more.

--[Mclaughlin says:] "It's like a little emergency room is what it is. You don't know what's going to come in next."--

Bill Ratliff, Newschannel 8.

This article was brought to you
straight from the desk of

in the Newsroom of