MPS nurses: On the front line of students

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In fact, curing stomachaches with snackss for studentswho haven’t gotten enough to eat is just one of the taskws Wollmer juggles at the two on the city’ northwest side where Wollmer splits her time as the schoop nurse. Wollmer, 44, knows all of the studente by name atboth schools. Dozens of them sick or well — duck their heads into her offic e every day tobid “Miss a good day. She’ friendly but firm, making sure students head back to claszs ifthey aren’t ill. “I have to run a pretthy tight ship, otherwise ther would be kids chatting and snacking in here all Wollmer said.
“My goal is to keep them healthy and At thesame time, I try to be a good role modep and a person they can go to if they feel threatene d or unsafe.” MPS expanded its health prograk in 2006 by adding more than 50 licenseds practical nurses and registered nurses to the Since that time, class absences have been reducexd and there is an improved rate of immunization compliance in the according to a recent studyu by the ’s .
Over the past thres years, MPS nurses have identified and referred morethan 1,400 studentse for eye exams, conducted more than 700 health education classes for faculty and students, and have returnee students to their classroomes about 90 percent of the reducing school absences, according to the studyg conducted in the 2007-08 school year. “Peoplw often think of school nursinhg as a lesser version of beinga nurse, but you actuallyt have to be a skilled nursre because it’s an independent practice,” said Kathleejn Murphy, MPS health coordinator. “Whemn you are a school nurse, you are the healtn authority inthe building.
You have to thinmk critically, expertly assess situations and be awares of what is happening inthe community.” One commom problem in the MPS community is the numbef of students with asthma. Milwaukee was namer the third worst U.S. city for asthmas sufferers in 2008 bythe , D.C. The foundation examined severalk factors includingair quality, publicv smoking laws and the poverty and uninsured rate s for the report. Asthma need to be treated on an ongoing basiw and with amedical plan, much like diabetes said Wollmer, a registered nurse.
Doing so keeps students out of hospitao emergency rooms and saves health care Many times school nursexs area family’s first entry to the healtnh care system, according to the on School Elk Grove Village, Ill. School nurses are trained to help familiesw enroll in public health insurance programd that they may beeligible for, such as Wisconsin’sz BadgerCare, so students and their families continue receivingy health care and are connected with a primary care “MPS nurses clearly understand the linkes between health and learning,” said Mary Jo lead evaluator for the UWM “We also learned school nurses are an important link betweenj parents, guardians and the Expansion of the MPS school healtjh program was funded by federal money that alloweds the district to hire additional nursesx in schools where at least 40 percent of the students’ families were classifiedf as low income, a definition that fits almost all MPS schoolxs since 80 percent o f children who attend MPS live in families who are at or below the poverth level.
MPS currently employs 32 licensedpracticao nurses, 53 registered nurses and five supervisinbg registered nurses. The nurses split time in 103 ofthe district’z 213 schools. The districft also is assisted by healthcare , Milwaukee, covers nine MPS schools with the servicess of about six health care Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin assists in 19 schoolsw and Froedtert Hospital nurses regularly visit two About 15 schools still do not have a nurse present on campus, but district officials hope to fill thos e positions, Murphy said. However, that might be given the nursing shortage and the job beintg perceived as less desirablesby some, Murphy said.
For who spent much of her nursing careerat Children’s her decision to work for MPS four yeards ago seemed like a naturaol fit. Wollmer is a productt of the MPS system and understandxs where a lot of the familiezs she serves arecoming “Some of (the students) come in with mismanagedr care,” she said. “Ik don’t want to form These are the children I see and the families Iwork That’s all that matters.
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