LARGO, Fla. — With public schools being ordered to reopen in the fall, the role of the school nurse will take on more significance and likely be a source of comfort to parents.
Having a full-time nurse is a priority for most of our districts. Both Hillsborough and Pinellas counties plan to have full-time nurses in each school.
However, there are a number of openings, and getting those positions filled and people trained before school starts will be a challenge.
In most Tampa Bay area counties, a full-time nurse would often rotate between several schools either for a number of hours or on certain days. Pinellas County schools began prioritizing the need for school nurses and have been adding some each year with the goal of having one in each building full time.
It sped up that timeline this school year with the help of some CARES Act money. The district is also using that money for the extra training the nurses will need to deal with coronavirus as well as personal protective equipment.
Sara O'Toole, the managing officer of School Health Services for Pinellas County, said the role of a school nurse is more important than ever.
"School nurses are really going to be the ones making clinical assessments and clinical judgments on students to determine if they are safe to be in school; if they are at risk with other kids," she said. "If it's something of concern, if they need to be isolated from other students while awaiting pick up, so that's in addition to all the other things they do."
Other responsibilities of nurses include distributing prescribed medications to kids with chronic illnesses or allergies, doing sight and hearing screenings and seeing every kid that just "doesn't feel good" to determine if they need to go home or go back to class.
Now, they will also have to rule out coronavirus before anything else, make sure they have PPE for themselves or any other staff member that deals with sick kids and will have to evaluate staff members who feel ill.
Here's the plan from other districts in our area:
Pasco, Hernando: Nurses rotating to several schools. Nurse assistants or staff will handle possible COVID-19 cases when they are not there.
Sarasota: Plans to have nursing staff full time at each school.
Polk: Still in the process of creating a reopening plan.
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