The death of a child again opens up the debate about the lack of nurses in schools: one in every 8,500 students.

Date:

The fact that a school or institute has a nurse in Spain is an almost silly dream. According to the latest data compiled by the School Nursing Observatory of the General Nursing Council, it is one in every 8,500 men and women. Adjusting his figure to attend emergency situations, but also to support the chronically ill and to promote ever-forgotten health is a historic requirement of the scientific community, teachers’ unions and associations, which arises in the spring when any calamity occurs, rare but possible, in education. Center.

One such rare case has just occurred. Earlier this week, a 12-year-old boy died at a public institution in Micah (Malaga) that had no healthcare staff and was attended by teachers who have training in a defibrillator course they have at the center. The rate they had to pay, on the other hand, As the center’s teacher explains on Twitter.

“We are an educational center where 1,300 people gather every day, including teachers, students and PAS (administration and service staff), as well as families and other people. Many cities have fewer inhabitants. They have medical care. And nurses. Private and affiliated schools also have school nurses […], But we can not. And it so happens that like yesterday, (that) the only ambulance to arrive in this area takes 20 minutes. And the child dies. And yes, maybe nothing could be done about it. But maybe yes, ”the teacher said.

Nativad Lopez, president of the National and International Association of School Nurses (AMECE), is studying the issue. “The result would probably be the same and there is no zero risk,” he explains, “but parents and teachers would be reassured that everything was done. Many things happen at school during the day, big and small drop. The last thing I know at school is the nurse revived.” “This is another case, perhaps not representative, but just as real as the other,” he says.

Mijas’s case is extreme, but it brings to the fore a recurring debate that goes beyond the scope of a serious episode like this. “The lack of nurses in the centers is an obvious shortcoming of the system,” said Vincent Manies, president of the Federation of Early Childhood and Primary Education Centers Associations. “It should be absolutely normal, but it is very wasteful today,” he explained. And not because they were not needed.

“It’s not about having someone in the infirmary or running a medicine cabinet, they can also take care of hygiene and eating habits, work with the school menu, train teachers, take on the role of connecting the school to the health care system. “It can be a very broad role,” he said. “Monitoring students, those who get sick in the centers, those who have allergies or take any medication if necessary. There are plenty of reasons for this staff to be involved,” said Francisco Garcia, CCOO Secretary-General for Education. Trade unions that demand this figure over a period of time – like all educational actors.

The claim also took on special force during the pandemic in educational centers when it was decided that one of the staff – the role was almost always assigned to the management team – would become COVID’s coordinator overnight and instructed on possible cases, found positive. Isolate them and manage everything with health centers (when they picked up the phone, but that’s another story). “We already said that then,” Manes recalls. “If we had nurses, it would be clear to whom it suited.” And I knew how to do it right.

Compiling school nurses figures is a puzzle: there are no official numbers, communities are reluctant to offer their data, and most professionals – if so – travel for hours from one center to another, the center’s secretary general explains. The General Nursing Board, Diego Ayuso, which complicates the existence of a photograph depicting the condition of the case.

Situations vary greatly by area. The General Nursing Council estimates that the number of school nurses across Spain for more than eight million students does not reach one thousand. In the range we meet from Asturias, which has only one nurse for 131,480 students, to Madrid, which has 700 for each of the 1,711 students and is the community where the most progress has been made in implementing this figure. There are 10,326,105 schoolchildren in the Canary Islands (32,610 juveniles per nurse) and 22 in Castilla y Le ლეn, with a school population of 335,308 boys and girls (per 15,241 students each). These figures put Spain far behind European countries such as Finland, where there is one nurse for every 600 schoolchildren, always according to the General Nursing Council. The North American School Nursing Association (NASN) estimates the ratio of one professional to every 750 boys and girls.

How do you decide which centers are and which are not? The teacher at IES Sierra de Mijas was worried that as long as there was no nurse in her public center, the private individuals around her (with or without a concert) would really have it. There is no autonomous society where the involvement of a healthcare figure is regulated compulsorily in all schools and institutions, which suggests that ultimately it depends on one’s own resources and the will to be present. Closest to this is a 2014 order from the Madrid Community stating that a nurse should be hired if there were students with diabetes or a gastric tube at school. The purpose of this order, as it was drafted, was to “give boys and girls in need of access to education equal access to education.”

The criteria for communities to agree to hire a school nurse are random. For example, in special education centers it is more standardized according to the type of student, but even so, it is not extended to all topics. “A lot of times it depends on what pressure families can put on, or whether something has happened,” said Lopez, a nurse from AMECE and a retired nurse after 42 years at a special education center in Madrid.

The data of the General Nursing Council includes public, private and subsidized centers. The distribution between them, Ayuso and Lopez agree, is very unequal. In autonomous communities, where there are several health care professionals in schools and institutions, they are mainly concentrated in private centers. “Which private school does not have a nurse or even a doctor? Some need it and some do not?” – reads the President of AMECE. In Madrid, for example, there are 500 health workers in public centers and 200 in private centers, which is a favorable connection to the public sector (once), which accounts for 54% of students but has 71% of nurses. .

Organizations that have struggled for years to hire a nurse in each school are convinced it is an economic issue. An event that is “politically perceived as a non-productive expense,” Lopez said. The union of SATSE, considering the surrounding countries, calculates that it will cost from 16 to 20 euros per capita per year. Director Manes is clear that if they are not part of the system, it is a “purely economic” issue, and while he is convinced that “no one doubts that such a rate would be convenient”, this need is not recognized. Administration “because then you have to provide services.”

“If we talk about money, we save money for the health care system,” Lopez said. “If a child has an asthma attack and you are being treated at school, he may be in class in the fourth hour, otherwise you should call the ambulance, the family should come and you should go to the hospital. But it seems that as long as it does not act, there is no sensitivity. “And serious emergencies are not something that just happens in movies,” Lopez said.

Speaking of money, Manes specifies that not a single professional will be needed in each center. “The required professional profile has been studied, we see what we demand from this professional, how much time it takes in each center and if so, the little ones can share one,” he offers. As a personal example, but presumably representative, Manes explains that the nurse does not go to her school, in the community of Valencia, regularly; They only come for a mini-course or conversation because the center has requested and always depends on coordinating with the health center and wanting to send someone.

In the summer of 2020, the Collegiate Nursing Organization sent letters to the Ministries of Health and Education of 17 Autonomous Communities and two Ministries. Only two administrations responded to them, pointing to Ayuso: Aragon and the Balearic Islands. There is another model in these areas. School nurses are professionals who work full time in primary health care centers and dedicate a few hours per week to visiting different schools.

“The pandemic has shown that where we fail is not in the treatment of acute pathology, but in public health and prevention. School nurses are forcing this model to change. We would have a much healthier adult community if there would be conversation at school. “Healthy living habits, for example,” – closes Ayuso.


Source: El Diario

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

Share post:

Subscribe

Popular

More like this
Related