School nurses fight for more pay as school nurse shortage is projected to worsen

School districts continue to experience a school nurse shortage.

“This year alone, I called 911 more than any other school year,” said Jennifer Reznick, Pinellas County school nurse.

She told ABC Action News that the majority of those calls were for staff or visitors.

“So when people look at what the school nurses are doing a lot of times they think about taking care of minor injuries and such with the students. But the complexity of what we do actually extends farther,” said Reznick.

She believes that’s part of the reason why there’s a growing school nurse shortage—the lack of understanding many people have about what they do.

Reznick feels school nurses are often overlooked.

A lot of nurses have to travel from school to school.

“Ideally, we want a nurse in every school. That was the ultimate goal. Because we can’t do that, then our priority goes to staffing our students who have complexities and daily needs,” said Reznick.

The Florida Hospital Association predicts a shortage of 59,000 nurses by 2035 across the board.

Reznick said the worsening shortage could come with real consequences.

“So what happens if you’re covering two, three schools? Those two, three schools have a student with a need. Well, that student has a crisis. Now you can’t get to your other school. So now you have to find someone else to cover that or that student is left without care. Which obviously we don’t want, so now there’s that mad scramble to find someone else. Now you’re pulling from another school with somebody who’s got complexities,” said Reznick.

“We’re talking about the most vulnerable people really in our community, is our kids,” she added.

This problem isn’t unique to Pinellas County, it’s happening nationwide.

One of the main things school nurses are asking for is better pay.

Without it, many are opting to go back to more traditional hospital settings rather than staying within school districts.

“School districts are facing their own challenges, teacher pay, and all these other things and so we understand. But at the same time of course, it’s making it harder for them to staff when their wages have remained so stagnant as compared to the rest of our industry,” said Reznick.

The Pinellas Educational Support Professionals Association, or PESPA, is in the middle of salary negotiations right now.

The group is asking the Pinellas County School District for a $7 an hour raise for all support staff, which includes school nurses.

“We’re very hopeful, you know, that we will see that good jump this year in our pay, and hopefully, that’ll help bring more nurses in,” said Reznick.

Those negotiations are expected to continue for a few weeks.