Chicago Injury Lawyer Blog

When the swine flu emerged last spring, “it was a school nurse in New York City...who helped identify and curtail the country's first major outbreak after she noticed large numbers of students complaining of high fevers and sore throats” (Terence Chea, AP for FindLaw, 9/25). As the flu season approaches, it is crucial to have adequate nursing staff in schools to be the first barrier to outbreaks by quickly diagnosing and sending sick children home.

Unfortunately, “many schools around the country don't have a medical professional who can quickly diagnose students and detect outbreaks. The average nurse-to-student ratio nationwide is one nurse for every 1,151 students, but in 14 states there is only one nurse for more than 2,000 students, according to the nurses association. Only 12 states, mostly in the Northeast, met the 1-to-750 ratio recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the association found.” One example is Utah's Granite School District near Salt Lake City. Although officials there have prepared a pandemic response plan, the district only has 10 nurses for 89 schools with 68,000 students. Less than half of the states require a specified nurse to student ratio, and only a few states have set aside money to pay for school nurses. Currently, schools with shortage in medical professionals are asking all school employees with or without medical training to be on the lookout for flu like symptoms.

As a personal injury lawyer, I am concerned by the lack of medical professionals in schools across the country. With the H1N1 virus, the need is only greater this year to combat both the seasonal flu and the virus, and schools without adequate nursing staff are sacrificing their first line of defense against an outbreak.