[ti:The Life of a School Nurse? Busy ]
[ar:Steve Ember]
[al:Education Report]
[by:51VOA.COM]
[00:00.00]This is the VOA Special English 
[00:03.19]Education Report.
[00:05.19]Last week, 
[00:06.41]we discussed a new study of injuries
[00:09.35]in physical education classes 
[00:12.07]in American schools. 
[00:14.00]The number of students taken 
[00:16.17]to hospitals increased one 
[00:18.89]and a half times 
[00:20.21]from nineteen ninety-seven 
[00:22.34]to two thousand seven. 
[00:24.74]Few injuries were serious. 
[00:27.19]Then why treat them 
[00:29.11]at emergency rooms?
[00:30.51]One possible reason: 
[00:32.76]a shortage of school nurses.
[00:35.14]Amy Garcia agrees with that. 
[00:38.84]She is the executive director 
[00:41.39]of the National Association 
[00:42.90]of School Nurses.
[00:45.41]She says federal guidelines 
[00:47.88]call for one nurse 
[00:49.72]for every seven hundred fifty 
[00:52.22]healthy students. 
[00:53.97]In reality, she says, 
[00:56.24]the number is more like one 
[00:58.74]for every one thousand one hundred.
[01:02.04]Every state is different. 
[01:04.81]The association says Vermont 
[01:07.69]has one nurse for every two hundred 
[01:12.35]seventy-five students. 
[01:14.41]In Utah, which has a bigger population, 
[01:18.13]each nurse is responsible 
[01:20.39]for almost five thousand students.
[01:23.99]The recession may have reduced 
[01:26.70]a national nursing shortage; 
[01:29.30]health care is one industry 
[01:31.75]that has kept hiring. 
[01:34.10]But experts predict that 
[01:36.36]the shortage will grow again. 
[01:38.82]Another problem for schools 
[01:41.43]is limited budgets. 
[01:44.08]Nurses often have 
[01:45.98]to split their time 
[01:47.54]at different schools.
[01:50.21]And not all schools 
[01:52.41]employ registered nurses. 
[01:55.11]An R.N. must have at least 
[01:57.58]a two-year nursing degree. 
[02:00.50]The Labor Department says 
[02:02.69]registered nurses 
[02:04.15]earned an average 
[02:05.90]of sixty-five thousand dollars 
[02:08.42]last year.
[02:10.13]Amy Garcia says school nurses 
[02:12.92]earn an average of 
[02:14.77]forty-two thousand dollars. 
[02:17.58]But some earn half that and are 
[02:21.16]on the same pay system 
[02:23.37]as cleaning people.
[02:25.27]Pat Lewis is a school nurse 
[02:27.57]in Beaumont, Texas. 
[02:29.44]She and one assistant care for 
[02:32.34]about nine hundred children 
[02:34.49]ages four to eleven. 
[02:36.84]She says many times the school nurse 
[02:40.33]is the first one 
[02:42.09]to bring health problems 
[02:44.09]to the attention of parents.
[02:46.78]Right now, as schools prepare 
[02:49.28]to begin a new year, one concern 
[02:52.32]is the H1N1 virus, 
[02:55.83]often called swine flu. 
[02:58.23]Last week, federal officials 
[03:01.12]announced their latest 
[03:02.72]guidelines for schools.
[03:04.82]These urge local officials 
[03:07.57]to balance to risk of flu 
[03:10.62]in their communities 
[03:12.56]with the problems 
[03:13.76]that school dismissals could cause. 
[03:17.17]The hope is to keep schools open. 
[03:20.77]But if any schools do have to close, 
[03:24.31]then the hope is 
[03:25.77]to keep children learning 
[03:27.81]-- for example, through phone calls 
[03:30.07]or over the Internet.
[03:33.01]Schools could also be used 
[03:35.06]as places to give flu vaccinations.
[03:37.71]Federal health officials said 
[03:40.66]they expect a vaccine 
[03:42.62]for the H1N1 flu to be available 
[03:46.67]by the middle of October.
[03:49.03]And that's the VOA Special English 
[03:52.47]Education Report, 
[03:54.23]written by Nancy Steinbach 
[03:56.15]I'm Steve Ember.