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School Nurses and Superintendents
March, 2009Little Sarah has lice. Jimmy needs his Ritalin. And the sixth grade gym class is lined up and waiting for their scoliosis check.
Between mandatory screenings and everyday
maintenance, school nurses in Arkansas and across the nation find they
don't have the time or resources to address the bigger picture of
health services. It's a problem that limits their impact on overall
student health and one they frequently blame on school administrators.
But a survey conducted by researchers Marianne Neighbors and Kathleen Barta in the UA school of nursing along with Carleton Holt and Roland Smith in the department of educational leadership, counseling and foundations, finds that lack of funding is what ails these nurses, not lack of administrative support.
The researchers submitted their survey to school nursing supervisors and superintendents in all 313 Arkansas school districts. The survey asked each respondent to estimate the amount of time the school nurse spent on various activities; to assess the amount of time the school nurse ought to spend performing the activities; to identify activities most important to the mission of the school; and to evaluate which activities could be delegated to other personnel.
With a return rate of 74 percent from nursing supervisors and 53 percent from superintendents, the researchers found nearly identical responses. In other words, nurses and administrators hold the same vision for school health services.
"I was surprised to see so much agreement between nurses and superintendents," Barta said. "The activities that took up too much time were mutually recognized, and they agreed on areas where nurses needed to spend more time. It's a starting point for discussion on how we can redesign the workload."