MILWAUKEE – At a time when parents are sending their children back to school for the fall semester, around 40% of schools nationwide do not have a full time Registered Nurse (RN) to medically care for those students.
The National Education Association says that school nurses are leaving schools for hospitals and other clinics, mostly due to the high stress and low pay of the school setting. Dr. Kim Litwack is the Dean of the College of Health Professions and Sciences at UW-Milwaukee, she says nurses come to schools because they like working with young patients and being outside of a hospital setting. However, it comes with a price
“Nurses in the schools have an average salary of around $66,000 a year, which is around $20,000 lower than a nurse would make in a hospital,” said Dr. Litwack when asked about why nurses have been moving away from schools.
Dr. Litwack went on to say ongoing reductions to education funding is another significant reason nurses are stepping away from schools.
“These positions are based on school funding. Given that school funding has been threatened, not only in this state but nationwide, when programs are cut school health is typically the first to go.”
Milwaukee Public Schools was contacted to make comment on their number of school nurses but did not respond. As of August 25th, there are around 37 job openings on MPS’s website labeled Children’s Health Assistant.
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