Student-to-School Nurse Ratio Improvement Legislation

Did you know there is a bill introduced by Representative McCarthy of New York that would legislate the improvement of the number of students per school nurse in public elementary and secondary schools? H.R. 2730, the "Student-to-School Nurse Ratio Improvement Act of 2009" has 32 co-sponsors and currently is in committee. This bill would offer grants through the Centers for Disease Control to reduce the numbers of students that school nurses now serve. The recommended ratio of nurse to student in this act is 1:750; this number seems far more manageable than the current number of students I and fellow Michigan nurses currently serve, 1:4274! Michigan is at the bottom of the list in school nurse to student ratios, and this is detrimental for the increasingly complicated health care issues that nurses deal with on a daily basis in the public school system. I am scheduled to meet with the Constituent Liaison for the U.S. Congressman for my district here in Michigan tomorrow; I will be posting more on this subject in the future. In the meantime, please study this bill. H.R.2730. I will post the supporters of this bill in my next entry, and ask that you consider writing or calling your Representative in support of this critical piece of legislation. It may be one answer for continuing to provide life-saving care in the Public Schools in the face of drastic budget cuts.