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In any ordinary school year, school nurses are busy. This year, that's an understatement.
"Our role has expanded tenfold," says Eileen Gavin, who co-leads a team of nurses for Middletown Township Public Schools in New Jersey.
She and school nurses across the country face an unenviable and unprecedented task: caring for students and staff during a global pandemic. "We were at the front line of COVID-19 before the stay at home orders were put into place," says Gloria Barrera, the president-elect of the Illinois Association of School Nurses. They'll be at the front line again, she says, as the school year begins.
Many nurses, including Gavin and Barrera, have been working with their school districts over the summer to prepare plans for every scenario imaginable. But they say that's not the case for everyone.
"I know a lot of nurses have asked to be at the table and they're not being invited or disregarded," Gavin says. "And honestly, would you want your child to return to a school where a school nurse was not part of the plan?"
Colleen, who leads a team of school nurses in Texas, wishes she had more of a voice in her district's decisions for the coming year.
"Overwhelmingly, the response has been, well, let us get some decisions made," she says. "And then once the big decisions are made, you and your nurses can implement plans around that." That means she wasn't at the table to relay the most recent research about social distancing or disease spread to district leaders drafting a re–opening plan. (We're using Colleen's middle name so she can speak freely about her employer.)
Back in April, when many schools closed their doors, the National Association of School Nurses (NASN) polled members around the country about their roles in pandemic plans. "While about 60 percent of those school nurses were part of the conversation with their school teams...around COVID, about 40 percent of school nurses weren't involved in the conversation," says Donna Mazyck, executive director of NASN.
In many places, nurses aren't part of the conversation because they simply don't exist. According to data from NASN, only about half of all schools employ a full time nurse. And, says Mazyck, "Twenty–five percent of schools do not have a school nurse at all."
In Gavin's New Jersey district, they're recruiting for more school nurses and substitute nurses. "And unfortunately, that seems to be a problem because of the pay," she says. School nurses with experience and advanced degrees can often make more money at hospitals, which desperately need them too.
Even in districts starting the year with mostly virtual learning, nurses plan to hold telehealth visits and check in on students with chronic illness. Gavin, whose school district is finalizing plans for a hybrid model with in-person and virtual options, says she and her nursing team are trained COVID-19 contact tracers.
They'll also be checking on students traumatized by the pandemic. There's "uncertainty, grief and fear that's come because of COVID-19," says Mazyck. "[Students] will have family members who passed away. They will have acquaintances who no longer have grandparents in their home," she says. They will need support from trusted adults at school — often, support they seek from their school nurses.
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