Fitzsimon File

Public Investment Agenda Part II: More school nurses, more healthy children

Health care always seems to dominate policy debates. It is clear that lawmakers at the state and federal level need to find the courage to develop a comprehensive strategy to provide access to affordable health care for everyone.

A good place to start on the state level would be the bill introduced by Rep. Verla Insko and others in the last few sessions that calls for a constitutional amendment declaring that health care is a right in North Carolina.

The amendment leaves the details of working out a health care plan up to state lawmakers, but it is an important fundamental assumption that must frame the debate, that everyone in North Carolina has the right to basic health care.

There are things that state lawmakers can do this session and most of them are part of the public investment agenda that lawmakers and Governor Easley should embrace this year. Upcoming editions of the Fitzsimon File will continue to feature the agenda.

Today’s investment initiative is adequate funding for school nurses, a vital and often overlooked part of the health care system in North Carolina. For thousands of poor children, the school nurse is the first or only health care professional they see.

Virtually every school system has a story about a nurse discovering an untreated medical problem. Students with chronic medical conditions are now able to attend school, but often need the assistance of a nurse with invasive medical procedures that only people with training can perform. Last year, 12 percent of public school students had such a condition.

The president of the School Nurses Association, Diana Perry, works at two schools in Franklin County and says it is not uncommon for her to see a student who has an untreated infection or other medical condition that developed since the last time she was at the school. Perry also says she many poor families don’t realize their child may be eligible for Health Choice that pays for medical care. She helps them get signed up.

News accounts across the state have described incidents where school nurses have made a difference. Noticing a limp in a high school student in Charlotte and arranging for the student to see a doctor who found a tumor in her hip, tracking down a student in a Johnston County who was recently diagnosed with diabetes and needed help with injections, responding to a student’s severe allergic reaction in a Jackson county school.

The problem is now that a school nurse is often shuffling from school to school, responsible for too many kids. The federal government recommends that a ratio of one school nurse for every 750 students. Last year the ratio in North Carolina was as high as 1 to 2100 in some school systems. State lawmakers spent $4 million last session to reduce the ratio, which statewide is now 1 to 1,568, still twice the federal standard.

It will take roughly $50 million to hire enough school nurses to bring the ratio down to 1 to 750. But think about the payoff from that investment. More children seeing a medical professional, more children enrolling in Health Choice to get regular medical care, and more children getting help dealing with their chronic medical condition. Ultimately, it means more kids who are healthy and more kids who are able to learn.

Politicians love to talk about how much they care about children. Investing $50 million this year to hire school nurses would be a good way to prove it.

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This entry was posted on Monday, January 31st, 2005 at 5:26 pm and is filed under Fitzsimon File. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.