The biggest medical battle of the year hasn’t been health care. H1N1, otherwise known as Swine Flu, has not only battered down the citizenry of the United States, but also the entire planet. This global pandemic has made an immeasurable amount of people sick and has threatened the lives of thousands if not millions. In fact, the World Health Organization stopped keeping count after the numbers rose as such a striking rate. With that said, who is most at risk? Who should we protect first and foremost? The obvious answer is our children. Schools throughout the country are having nurse shortages in a time when diagnosis and care for our children is of the utmost importance. Perhaps it was time for you to join the fight.

Around the nation, the front line of this battle against H1N1 was our nurses. However, this line seems to be short and without depth. Mayor of New York Michael Bloomberg has just stated that there will not be mass school closings during this coming flu season because he feels that the schools know how to handle anything that comes their way. How will that be if there are under-staffed schools getting hit with a wave of influenza?

Schools in Ohio and Kentucky are falling short of governmental standards for personnel. In Ohio, there is only one nurse for every 2,377 students. Kentucky is not much better with a 1 to 1,877 ratio. Nationally, there is only 1 nurse per 1,151 students. This is unacceptable, especially in a time of great vulnerability for our country’s children.

The standard, as stated by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, is 1 nurse for every 750 students. Think about that. In Ohio a nurse is doing the job of over 3 nurses. That means that every single student in the entire state of Ohio is getting 1/3 of the care he or she should be getting by the nurse and school system.

Some schools have licensed practical nurses that don’t get counted within the national standard because they are not fully certified. Is this good enough? Should we not expect and demand fully certified and skilled nurses to care for our students? Nurses are one of the most noble and necessary components of a well run school and we are overlooking the importance of these valued professionals.

According to the Courier Journal, “Amy Garcia, executive director of the National Association of School Nurses, said only RNs, not the less-educated LPNs and nurse’s aides, have the training and certification to offer comprehensive medical care and a community health perspective, so that’s why other certification levels aren’t counted in their statistics.”

The coming months will not be papercuts and simple runny noses. A storm of sore throats and devastating fevers are on their way; this is a given. How are we going to ready ourselves for it? By hiring and training more nurses to protect our children today and for years to come. Are you interested in joining the battle for prevention and treatment? Check out a nursing program today.