Milwaukee Balances Budget Cuts and In-School Nursing Needs (WI)

May 25, 2011

Twenty-one nurses working in Milwaukee Public Schools might lose their jobs if the proposed district budget is approved this summer, the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reports. In his biennial state budget, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker eliminated a $1.5 million state grant that funded the district’s 21 full-time nursing positions. MPS does not have the money to cover the positions from its district funds.

Ann Riojas, nurse supervisor in MPS and the president of the Wisconsin Association of School Nurses, said that having nurses in schools is more crucial than ever as more kids are diagnosed with illnesses that require constant management like diabetes and various allergies. The number of students in the district who require lunch-time diabetes care rose from 21 in 2001 to 110 today. The number has increased in spite of the fact that the total MPS student body has gone down from 100,000 to 86,000 over the same period.

School nurses also free up other school employees from dealing with student health issues. In a study by the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s College of Nursing, principals reported that nurses saved them one hour a day in dealing with health problems. School’s clerical staff reported 45 minutes of time savings a day.

    Students at schools with nurses also had more complete and accurate electronic health records compared with students at schools without nurses, according to the study, published this year in the Journal of School Health.

    “These records follow students, even as students travel to schools without a nur se, informing staff in the new school about relevant student health concerns,” the study said.

MPS Superintendent Gregory Thornton feels that the district’s students will lose out if full-time nurses are no longer employed in schools. But he admits that current economic realities make it difficult to find funding to keep the jobs going. Thornton considered having fewer nurses rotate through several schools throughout the day, but rejected the approach as impractical.

Nurse Linda Stone, who splits her day between Engleburg and Park View elementary schools, says that catastrophic injury care makes up only a small part of her work. The majority of the time is taken up by managing medications and following up with students’ parents and guardians.

    She’s not sure who at the school will have time to do that next year.

    “Some kids are on three different meds at lunchtime,” Stone said. “How is a teacher going to do all that? The probability of mis-medication is going to be higher.”