Physician Focus, January 2010: Health in the Schools
The incidence of such conditions as asthma, bullying and violence, and sexually transmitted diseases among school children is high and increasing. Seasonal and swine flu add to the burdens of medical directors and school nurses who provide front-line care for students. Yet budgets are strained and school nurses are in short supply across the state and the nation. Nationally, only 45 percent of public schools have their own full-time nurse, another 30 percent have a part-time nurse, and a quarter don’t have any nurses at all.
What challenges face those responsible for student health? What does the shortage of nurses mean for students? And what can be done to improve health care in the schools?
Guests: Kathy Hassey, B.S.N., M.Ed., Director, School Health Institute Northeastern University; Past President, Mass. School Nurses Organization and Linda Grant, M.D., M.P.H., Medical Director, Boston Public Schools; Associate Professor of Pediatrics, Boston University School of Medicine
Host: Lynda Young, M.D.
For more information on Physician Focus, visit: www.massmed.org/physicianfocus
Co-produced with Hopkinton Community Access Television, HCAM-TV, Hopkinton Mass.
Listen to the podcast (Length 26:43) (This will open your computer’s default media player in a new window)
Filed under: Physician Focus
