Nurse shortage plagues school districts across Tennessee

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WATE) — We have all heard of the school teacher shortage , but did you know there’s a shortage of school nurses as well? There is one nurse for every 2,500 students in Tennessee on average.

Many East Tennessee schools have their own dedicated on-site nurse or share a nurse with another nearby school. But in other areas of the state – some schools are not so lucky. State Representative Elaine Davis pushed through a bill this past session aimed at changing that.

School nurses like Karen Beatty, who works at Karns High School, takes care of all types of medical issues. Both she and fellow school nurse Kristin Hartley, who works at Heritage High School, said sometimes those issues are quite serious.

“I had a student actually have a stroke in the back gym,” Hartley said.

Hartley added there are also a lot of non-medical issues that school nurses have to handle. “Our kids go through a lot more than I ever thought they did.”

Beatty said being a school nurse for dozens of kids is a unique position. “You get to see the same patients over and over and over and develop that rapport with them – get to know them. Their history. Their traumas. Their health history. What kind of things they’ve overcome.”

Hartley said a full-time nurse in schools like Karns and Heritage High Schools is a full-time job. “We see, on average, about 30 kids. When I first came here, we saw 50 to 80 kids every day.”

Here in East Tennessee our schools seem to be doing a good job at filling those positions. 6 News checked in with local school districts and found the following numbers.

• Oak Ridge School District has 9 nurses for its 5,000 students
• Blount County School District has 31 nurses for 10,000 students.
• Loudon County School District has 10 nurses for its 4,900 students.
• Anderson County School District has 25 for its 6,400 students.
• Knox County has 31 nurses for its 60,000+ students.

Not all schools in Tennessee can say that. In fact, a recent online job search showed dozens of school nurse positions still open in West and Middle Tennessee. It’s something Rep. Davis is very aware of.

“Right now, the ratio for nurse to student is about 2,500.” Davis said that ratio is too high and she says the CDC recommends having a nurse for every 750 students. She said part of the reason for the shortage is salaries.

“We’re not paying that profession at the level that they should be,” she said.

This is part of the reason why this past legislative session, Davis successfully sponsored a house bill to identify gaps in care and aims to use part of the money in the Tennessee investment in student achievement funding formula to provide more school nurses.

Nurses like Beatty and Hartley, love their jobs and love the opportunities to help so many students.

“It’s really rewarding to help kids get from the freshman year where they’re anxious and don’t want to be in class – to the senior year and being successful and going off and doing what it is they like to do,” Beatty said.

Davis hopes as Tennessee gathers more information it will soon begin to do more to attract future nurses so both they and our students can have similar experiences.

“That’s what you want in a parent. That’s the reassurance you want. You want someone there who is going to love and care for your child the same way,” Davis said. “Hopefully, we can do that through paying them adequately, but also giving them the respect they deserve as a professional.”

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WATE 6 On Your Side.