LEWISTON — The School Committee reviewed data Monday night for the daily workload for each of the school nurses in the system’s five elementary schools, the middle school and the high school.
The study was requested last month after Connors Elementary School Principal Sara Sims shared data from her school showing that between Aug. 28 and Sept. 20, the school’s nurse saw 930 visits.
That broke down to 54.7 students per day or 7.8 students per hour, Sims said in mid-September.
Connors, which opened in August, has students from the former Longley and Martel elementary schools. By combining the two schools, the board cut one nurse position to keep one nurse per school.
“It was decided to go with one less nurse last spring because with Connors size, it was similar in size with the other elementary schools,” said Lewiston Middle School nurse Wendie Bourgoin, the school nurse coordinator. “In retrospect, the need is districtwide. It has always been districtwide. We only went down in (the number of) schools. We didn’t go down in (student) population.”
Connors school saw 1,031 student visits during October, with the average daily visits dipping slightly to 51.5.
At the other schools:
• Farwell: 957 student visits and 48.3 average daily visits;
• Geiger: 967 and 48.3;
• McMahon: 1,364 and 68.2;
• Montello: 735 and 36.7;
• Middle school: 783 and 39.1;
• High school: 1,140 and 57.0.
Besides dispensing medication, nursing duties include record-keeping for every student, developing individualized health plans, communicating with parents and health care professionals, assist staff and other items.
“Our nurses are incredibly dedicated workers,” Superintendent Todd Finn said. “They are working extremely hard, often without a lunch break in their building, while seeing kids for more than just a bump on the head.”
Nurses also have to make sure every student is immunized and are required to check each student’s record.
“If they’re not immunized, we have to ask them to go home,” Bourgoin said.
They are also required to give vision screenings within 45 days of the start of the school year to every student in prekindergarten, first, third and fifth grades.
Board members sympathized with the nurses’ plight, but appeared reluctant to add another position to the budget. Thomas Shannon of Ward 7 praised the facts brought up in the report, but wanted more facts. He wanted the visits to the nurses broken down even further to define if the visit was for medication, an injury or something else. He also asked if a clerk could fill out the patient records.
Bourgoin wasn’t sure if that could be done because of laws, standards or liability issues.
Bourgoin and Finn will look to gather more data and hope to make a decision on staffing before the end of the month.
The board also held two executive sessions to review personnel matters.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
