GA. GOVERNOR SONNY PERDUE LOOKING TO AX SCHOOL NURSE PROGRAM

By R. A. Pearson

Georgia’s Governor Sonny Perdue has presented proposals for the 2009 and 2010 budgets that will affect the budget of Georgia’s schools in a dramatic fashion. One of the most drastic cuts is the proposed eliminating of the state funding for the school nurse program. While wealthy school systems may elect to fund school nurses through local funds, poorer systems, including many wealthier systems feeling the pinch of economic stress due to the current recession, will be forced to discontinue the program. This will set school health care back decades in the Peach State.

Today school children across America and Georgia come to school with a host of medical issues and problems that require professional help and monitoring throughout the school day. Students utilize school nurses to monitor conditions such as asthma, diabetes, high blood pressure, sickle cell anemia, and many other medical issues requiring the constant attention of a trained medical professional. Moreover, in some cases, the school nurse may be the only, or the major contact a child may have with a health care professional.

School nurses also dispense important medications to students during the day. Many students check in with the nurse to take medicine for Attention Deficit (ADD or ADHD), insulin, and other medications including temporary medications for colds and other illnesses prescribed by their attending physicians. They keep insulin and needles, blood sugar monitoring machines, and store medications that need refrigeration. They also treat numerous twists and sprains, and the cuts and scrapes, which may occur during the day during PE or on the playground.

While a teacher may hand out a occasional BAND-AID for a hangnail or a scab a student has picked at, teachers are ill equipped to deal with real emergency cases and need to send the child to the school nurse or call the nurse. Students have had seizures at school, serious asthma attacks, and other major problems where the immediate medical attention provided by the school nurse helped the child’s case stay contained to the immediate problem and not become compounded by waiting for a parent to be contacted or waiting on the EMTs. This year a child in my class began to complain about being hot, having trouble breathing, and his throat ‘feeling funny.’ It was immediately after lunch so I asked if he was allergic to anything, and he said peanuts. I realized he was having an allergic reaction to peanut butter or some other food item after eating in the school lunchroom, sent him to the nurse for treatment, and he was able to return to class after she contacted his parents and found out what to do in his case.

School nurses also treat and give advise to the adult staff at the school where they work. They monitor blood pressure, diabetes, store needles and insulin, and often run fitness programs for the school staff. The school nurse at the school where I teach was on hand when one principal had what appeared to be a heart attack and was there until the EMTs took him to the hospital in the ambulance. She was also recognized another teacher was having stroke-like symptoms and got the teacher to the hospital. School nurses treat more than the children of our schools.

School nurses are an important part of a school program. They could make more money in the private sector but work in the schools as a labor of love for the health and well-being of the students they serve. Will school nurses come back when Georgia realizes it has made a mistake? Who knows, but Georgia should not take that chance.

The Clarion Issue encourages its Georgia readers to look at the entire education budget proposed by Gov. Perdue and contact your respective State Senator and Representative on the various issues in the budget. This writer would remind the reader the teachers of Georgia, the backbone of education in any education system, have not received a substantial raise in several years, and the budget cuts affect many other areas of Georgia’s education programs including class sizes. However, while this may or may not be a major concern to many of you, the situation regarding school nurses is a paramount issue in maintaining the health and well being of Georgia’s school age children. Georgia needs to keep the school nurse program. Contact your State Senator and Representative and let them know how you feel about this important issue. Camden County readers can contact their State representatives Senator Jeff Chapman, email jeffchapman@senate.ga.us (Atlanta phone: 404-656-0045) and Rep. Cecily Hill, email cecily@cecilyhill.com
(Atl. phone: 404-656-0177). Gov. Perdue can be reached by email by going to www.ga.gov , look under at your service and click on Gov. Sonny Perdue, click on constituent resources, then click on contact us. He can always by reached by snail mail, phone, and even telegram at the capital in Atlanta.

Editor's note: R. A. Pearson, the editor of the Clarion Issue, is a 32 year teacher of Social Studies at Camden County Middle School in the Camden County Ga. School System.