School Nurses' Limits Irk Parents
Published: Oct 2, 2007
Related Links:
ADVERTISEMENT
More from this channel:
Search for more information:
TAMPA - Driving to Burns Middle School in the middle of the day Friday to put calamine lotion on his 11-year-old daughter's elbow rash didn't make sense to Lee Phelps.
"In another time and another place, a nurse would have put a little calamine lotion on it and she would go on her way," Phelps said. "The nurse said all she could do was put ice on it … It's not like I'm asking them to give my daughter heroin."
Phelps had run into a school district policy that he and other parents, school nurses and at least one school board member say doesn't make sense:
A doctor's prescription is required to dispense over-the-counter medications to students at school, even if a parent brings them in. Until this school year, Hillsborough County high schools and about 10 middle schools stocked basics such as aspirin, Motrin and Tylenol to dispense as long as a parent signed a permission letter.
Students who bring over-the-counter drugs to school are in violation of the district's zero-tolerance drug policy.
School board member Jennifer Faliero said she has had to drive to school to give her two daughters over-the-counter medications, not realizing they can't even be given cough drops.
Faliero plans to ask the other six school board members to consider that new practice when they meet this afternoon.
"The cough drop thing was a bit bizarre to me," Faliero said Monday. "We definitely need to revamp what we have."
Nurse Staffing Issue Festering
Another board member, Candy Olson, said she plans to raise the broader issue of nursing staffing that has been festering since August. She said Monday that she wants a group that includes school nurses to sort out the need.
"We need to look at the work - what are we expecting them to do?" Olson said. "Something's not right about the way we're going about this."
In late August, Hillsborough school nurses met with Superintendent MaryEllen Elia at their request and warned that student health is in jeopardy. The district lost 66 of its 316 nurses and health assistants that handled needs of more than 191,000 students after a yearlong hiring freeze to reduce the budget.
Also eliminated: the Healthy Student program that supplied over-the-counter drugs with parental permission.
The district is looking at community or other sources to pay for those drugs, which cost more than $10,000 a year, said Gwen Luney, assistant superintendent for student services and federal programs. Even more, she said, "It's a staffing issue - and we don't want children out of class for long periods of time."
However, school nurses said instead of going to the nurse, more students are leaving school.
"The attendance, I'm sure, is not going to look pretty," said Nancy Lobaugh, a registered nurse at Armwood High School in Seffner. "High school students after 16 can drive, so they go home."
Sixty to 80 students came in for medications last year; that has dropped to the low 40s, said Lobaugh, who has been at the school for a decade. Once getting help from a health assistant, she now handles the 2,000 students - including those with diabetes, life-threatening allergies and physical impairments - alone.
"To me it is a scary situation," Lobaugh said Monday.
Luney said staffing is not much different than in past years because there will be one health professional at each school when all positions are filled, including seven licensed practical nurse positions that have been approved in the past few weeks.
When asked for an updated list of health staff for each school, Luney produced a list Monday that she said is still "fluid" because some positions have not been filled or new hires are not yet working.
Each of the 110 health assistants and 84 licensed practical nurses is supposed to be overseen by a registered nurse. Some of those registered nurses are assigned to oversee five to eight schools each but may end up also being the only health professional at a school.
'I've Never Functioned Like This'
Melody Cox is assigned to oversee five elementary schools plus Mulrennan Middle School, but said Monday she has been working full time at Fishhawk Creek Elementary. A licensed practical nurse is supposed to take over at Fishhawk Oct. 15, according to Luney.
Even one health assistant or licensed practical nurse at a school is often not enough, Cox said, because only registered nurses can take responsibility for some procedures or make evaluations.
Last month, for example, a seemingly healthy first-grader came to her complaining she didn't feel well, Cox said. When the 6-year-old said, "My heart keeps beeping too much," Cox listened with a stethoscope and immediately called 911. The child had an undiagnosed heart condition.
"I've been an emergency room nurse," Cox said. "You can't really compromise these things. This was a normal, healthy kid just coming to school."
"We have no backups," she said. "We were told, 'School personnel will be the backups.' I've never functioned like this."
Luney said staff is shifted on a daily basis to try to keep at least one person at every school.
Being responsible for six to eight schools is far from what nurses are used to, said Jamie Figueredo, a registered nurse who left in August after five-and-a-half years with the district. Prior to that, she had been a pediatric nurse for 10 years.
"I had three schools and I had an LPN in addition most of the time," Figueredo said Monday, calling the current situation "dangerous." "To have five or seven schools - that's insane."
IF YOU GO
WHAT: Hillsborough County School Board meeting
WHERE: 901 E. Kennedy Blvd. Tampa
WHEN: Today at 3 p.m.; public comment at 5 p.m.
To contact school board members:
Chairman Jack Lamb - JLamb@sdhc.us
Vice chairwoman Jennifer Faliero - JFaliero@sdhc.us
Doretha Edgecomb -
April Griffin -
Carol Kurdell -
Candy Olson -
Susan Valdes - SValdes@sdhc.us
Reporter Marilyn Brown can be reached at (813) 259-8069 or mbrown@tampatrib.com.
