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CRITICAL CARE
Schools See More Chronically Ill Students, but Have Fewer Nurses to Care for Them The typical workday for Carolyn Duff and Beth Mattey is what you might call hectic. Duff, who serves as president of the National Association of School Nurses, is the nurse at an elementary school with 425 students in South Carolina’s Richland County School District One. One-third of those children are international students and about 60 percent of them are on free- or reduced-price meals, a common indicator of student poverty. “My typical day, I start running from the minute I get to my school,” Duff said. “Often
I have parents waiting to see me when I unlock my office door. Usually, they’re there because their child has been sick for the past couple of days and they don’t know what to do. “I fill my days with students. If I’m not treating them for something, I’m pulling them into my office to do vision and hearing screenings. I work with a partnership outside of my school and, through that program, I can connect my uninsured students with vision care, dental care, episodic care. … It’s not a
by Jennifer Ginn
medical home I’m connecting them to, but if a child fell on the playground and has an injury and needs to be seen, through the partnership I can provide free care for that.” Mattey, president-elect of the association, is the nurse at the 1,100 student Mount Pleasant High School in Delaware’s Brandywine School District. “When I got there (at school) today, I had two students who came in just after I came in,” Mattey said. “One had a really bad headache, had a bad headache all night. … I
SCHOOL NURSES WILDWOOD, N.J.—Cindy Fritz, school nurse at the Glenwood Avenue Elementary School, takes the weight of fifth-grade student Nicholas Cripps last August. There are fewer school nurses like Fritz in districts across the country, even though schools are seeing more chronically ill students who would benefit from their services. © AP Photo/The Press of Atlantic City, Dale Gerhard
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CAPITOL IDEAS | MAY / JUNE 2014
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