School nurse need may grow with flu in Oklahoma

School nurses will be on the front lines as schools battle swine flu, but their battalion is small. Oklahoma averages 3,100 students per school nurse.

In many districts, school secretaries and support personnel help lead the charge, monitoring absences and sending home sick children.

Oklahoma doesn’t mandate that school districts hire nurses and often a district chooses between hiring a nurse or another classroom teacher.

But school nurses do more than apply bandages, said Sharon Howard, a nurse and health services coordinator for Norman Public Schools.

"The whole reason school nurses came into being was to protect against communicable diseases,” Howard said.

Norman has nurses or health assistants at every school because the staffing is subsidized by Norman Regional Health System.

Health officials predict that cases of swine flu will increase now that students have returned to school.

Oklahoma City Public Schools have 31 nurses, 29 of whom move from school to school, spending about two days a week at each one. Secretarial employees often take up the slack when nurses aren’t available to help students.

Debbie Johnson, health services administrator for the Oklahoma City School District, said she hopes increased awareness about swine flu will lead parents to keep their sick children at home and that nurses and secretaries won’t see an increased workload this flu season.

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