Tennessee lawmaker pushes for more school nurses
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — There’s a bill awaiting Gov. Bill Lee’s signature aimed at helping to make sure Tennessee’s schools have enough nurses.
“Right now, there’s about one nurse for every 2,500 students. What we’re looking at is we’d really like to be able to look at that national standard of one nurse for every 750 students to really ensure that there is a nurse there that’s site based, or that can be present to be able to take care of those students,” said state Rep. Elaine Davis (R-Knoxville).
She explained how her son being diabetic helped to inspire the legislation.
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“Diabetes was always his normal, so he couldn’t really distinguish when his blood sugar was high, when his blood sugar was low, when he felt normal, because he was diagnosed as a baby, so that was really our primary concern was to make sure that he was really well cared for at the school so he could be a student, because that’s his primary job when he’s there at school,” Davis explained.
House Bill 2158 looks to take the first step towards having enough school nurses by having school districts report their nurse ratios to the state by June 1.
“With that data reporting, the local LEAs are supposed to send in to the department the information that they have addressing kind of the number of students that they have, and the number of nurses that they have attributed,” she said. “That way we can really kind of look at where the data leads us in terms of where there are gaps of care, or where we need to put in a safety net.”
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The bill passed the Tennessee House and Senate, so it is now waiting for the governor’s signature.
Meanwhile, National School Nurse Day is on Wednesday, May 8. It raises awareness and recognizes the hard work, accomplishments, and impact of school nurses nationwide.
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