Project Description Narrative:
School nursing is a specialized practice of professional nursing that advances the well-being, academic success, and life-long achievement of students. School nurses facilitate positive student responses to normal development, promote health and safety, intervene with actual and potential health problems, provide case management services, and actively collaborate with other to build student and family capacity for adaptation, self-management, self-advocacy and learning. Today's school nurses must also manage problems associated with absenteeism, poverty, communicable disease, sexuality, diversity, immigration, lack of health care, safety, and chronic illnesses.
Despite this important role, Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS) have struggled to identify resources to recruit and retain nurses. While the National Association of School Nurses guidelines recommend a student-to-nurse ratio of 750:1 for the general school population, MPS ratios have approximated a ratio of 8500:1. With a commitment from MPS to hire dedicated nurses, a need to recruit nurses with school nursing specialty preparation and experience is a new challenge for the Milwaukee community.
Through this award, project partners aim to support a diverse and knowledgeable school nurse work force, concentrating on the needs in Milwaukee Public Schools, by building organization and system capacity within MPS and other school districts and developing a school nursing certificate program.
Community partners: Milwaukee Public Schools
Additional MCW academic partner: Staci Young, PhD, Family and Community Medicine