Nursing service in schools: more than a luxury, a necessity

A few days ago, Citizens registered in the Madrid Assembly a non-law proposal on the need for all public and concerted schools in this community to have a nurse. The proposal would be added to the historical demand of the Nursing Organization, which has been requesting for years implementation of this figure in schools.

From the General Nursing Council they consider it "essential" that all schools have at least one nurse on staff. And in schools, health problems can also arise among students, accidents or specific situations that require the intervention of a qualified professional.

What is a school nurse or nurse?

The figure of the school nurse or nurse is conceived as a professional integrated within the educational staff, whose functions are focused on ensuring the health of students throughout the school day.

"There may be nurses who go to school on time to carry out a health education campaign and all amounts, but that is not school nursing" - point out from The College Organization of Nursing.

"The school nurse is the professional who is all the school day in the school, integrated into the educational community, who shares the schedules, assessments, and memories"

What functions does it perform?

Action in case of urgency

The school nurse has the knowledge and ability to act quickly and effectively in urgent situations such as seizures, asthma attacks, allergic reactions, anaphylactic shock, accidents, trauma, hypoglycemia, heat stroke ...

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Administration of medical treatments

Another important function is the medicine administration to those students who need it. From those frequently required for chronic illness, to those that the child may need in a timely and urgent manner (inhalers, adrenaline injections, insulin ...) or specific treatments for a limited time (medications for any medical condition, antibiotics ...).

Supervision and care in special situations

The students with chronic diseases, rare, disability and / or special needs They may require health care throughout the school day, regardless of the educational stage they are in.

Thus, those students with diabetes, asthma, allergies, phenylketonuria, epilepsy, hemophilia, cancer patients, children with motor diseases ... would have qualified supervision at all times.

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Ensure the health of all students

But in addition to these urgent or specific situations, the school nurse also acts attending to the child who gets sick during the school day (fever, gastroenteritis, headache ...) or healing wounds, sports injuries and blows.

It also has a very important role in detecting cases of bullying and mistreatment, as well as serve as support and accompaniment to those students who at any given time express some kind of emotional problem (due to stress or anxiety situations that are living in their family environment, personal reasons, incidents occurring at school ...)

Inform and train

And last but not least, the figure of the school nurse is also a reference when it comes to informing students about preventive measures hygiene, healthy lifestyle and accident prevention.

Likewise, it has the function of informing and training the tutors and teachers of the school about the management of certain diseases or specific situations, in order to identify any risk situation in time and know how to act correctly.

The implications of not having a school nurse

Unfortunately, most ordinary schools in Spain lack this important figure, so that parents know first hand the implications it has.

But for the families of children with chronic illnesses, or some need or special condition, the problem is much more serious, since in most cases there is a great school absenstism and reconciliation problems for parents.

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Logically, the work of teachers is not to ensure the health of students or to specifically address the needs of some of them. Are complicated tasks that require knowledge and training, and although some professors show good will and decide to help families, the truth is that it is not their task and we cannot demand it.

Therefore, from the different autonomous communities there are more and more parents and associations that demand to have the figure of a nurse in all schools.

This is the situation in Spain

The school nurse is a consolidated figure in the United States and in several European countries, and although in Spain there are more and more schools that are incorporating it, they are still a minority and distributed unevenly according to each autonomous community.

At the end of last year, the General Nursing Council urged institutions to regulate and define the mandatory presence of the nurse in all schools in Spain. And, although some autonomous communities are taking steps in this direction, the situation is still insufficient.

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In Madrid, for example, the Association of Diabetes and the Platform for chronically ill school-age children have been demanding for years that all educational centers in the community have a nursing diploma that permanently attends to students.

Also from the Nursing Union (SATSE), the Spanish Confederation of Associations of Fathers and Mothers (CEAPA) and the Teachers Union of the Public Network (ANPE) are fighting to make the school nurse a reality, because only 20 percent of Madrid schools have this figure.

In the Galician community they are mobilizing together with the Bicos de Papel Association, the Galician Diabetes Federation, the Galician Epilepsy Union, the Galician Council of Physicians and various parents' associations, which have joined in support of a proposition not of law that seeks to implant the figure of the nurse in all public and concerted centers in Galicia.

In Andalusia, the Nursing Union (SATSE) and the Andalusian Confederation of Associations of Mothers and Parents of Students (CONFEDAMPA) launched a project backed by all parliamentary groups, to gradually establish a school nurse in the centers of early childhood, primary and secondary education in Andalusia.

In the Canary Islands a pilot project has begun, and other communities such as Extremadura, Castilla-La Mancha, Castilla y León, Valencian Community, Catalonia and the Basque Country already have nurses in some schools.

Photos | iStock

Video: Event: Creating Safe and Inclusive Schools (March 2024).