Student growth puts strain on school district nurses

By Carolyn Cole
Published on August 2, 2008

Mustang School District officials are hiring for a sixth school nurse position for this fall as they expect student population to grow by more than 150 youth.

Special Services Director Debbie Beel said one school nurse will be assigned full-time at Mustang High School and will work with its more than 1,700 students. The other five nurses will each take on two schools, spending between two and three days per week at each facility.

“We added the nurse because we wanted to ensure as much as we can the safety and health of our kiddos,” Beel said.

Mustang School District ended the spring semester with 8,154 youth in attendance, and a student-to-nurse ratio of 1,631 to 1. This ratio is more than twice the National Association of School Nurses’ recommendation of one nurse per 750 students.

The same NASN study shows Mustang is ahead of most other schools in Oklahoma in nursing staffing. Oklahoma is one of four states with school systems that average one nurse for every 3,100 youth. State Department of Education estimates show 193 school nurses work at 283 schools in Oklahoma.

The study showed a quarter of U.S. schools have no school nurse, and most nurses split their time between 2.2 schools.

“We wanted to move closer to the recommended average,” Beel said.

Mustang’s school nurses wear many hats during their day, she said, and are responsible for maintaining students’ health records, teaching disease prevention and other health lessons to students, training other workers, treating minor injuries and helping their schools and the district respond to health concerns.

Mustang’s nurses are one of the first school staff 4 and 5 year olds meet as they take vision and hearing screenings before starting school. Nurses bandage minor scrapes and cuts from the playground and are also first responders treating serious injuries or deciding to call paramedics.

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