This is the VOA Special English Education Report.
Last week, we discussed a new study of
injuries in physical education classes in American schools. The number of
students taken to hospitals increased one and a half times from nineteen ninety-seven
to two thousand seven. Few injuries were serious. Then why treat them at
emergency rooms? One possible reason: a shortage of school nurses.
Amy Garcia agrees with that. She is the executive
director of the National Association of School Nurses.
|
Nurse Cindy Womack, right, talks to teacher Christine Quint about ways to prevent the H1N1 flu virus at their school in Houston, Texas |
She
says federal guidelines call for one nurse for every seven hundred fifty healthy
students. In reality, she says, the number is more like one for every one
thousand one hundred.
Every state is different. The association
says Vermont has one nurse for every two hundred seventy-five students. In
Utah, which has a bigger population, each nurse is responsible for almost five
thousand students.
The
recession may have reduced a national nursing shortage; health care is one
industry that has kept hiring. But experts predict that the shortage will grow
again. Another problem for schools is limited budgets. Nurses often have to
split their time at different schools.
And
not all schools employ registered nurses. An R.N. must have at least a two-year
nursing degree. The Labor Department says registered nurses earned an average
of sixty-five thousand dollars last year.
Amy
Garcia says school nurses earn an average of forty-two thousand dollars. But
some earn half that and are on the same pay system as cleaning people.
Pat Lewis is a
school nurse in Beaumont, Texas. She and one assistant care for about nine
hundred children ages four to eleven. She says many times the school nurse is
the first one to bring health problems to the attention of parents.
Right now, as schools prepare to begin a
new year, one concern is the H1N1 virus, often called swine flu. Last week,
federal officials announced their latest guidelines for schools.
These urge local officials to balance the risk of flu in
their communities with the problems that school dismissals could cause. The
hope is to keep schools open. But if any schools do have to close, then the
hope is to keep children learning -- for example, through phone calls or over
the Internet.
Schools could also be used as places to
give flu vaccinations. Federal health officials said they expect a vaccine for
the H1N1 flu to be available by the middle of October.
And
that's the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach and
available at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember.