WATERBURY, Conn. (WFSB) – Just like hospitals across the country, nursing shortages are affecting our schools.
In Waterbury, school nurses jumped between schools to cover vacancies.
Allison Sirowich, nurse at the Waterbury Vocational Institute, said: ‘It’s time for shift work to take its toll on your body.
Allison switched from hospital to school nursing in 2019.
But she’s only been at Waterbury Career Institute for about four months.
She took her exams at other schools in the city.
“I was at all the other schools. I attended Reagan Elementary School. I was floating around a lot, so I think I was close to every high school nurse office, every school nurse office in the city,” Allison said.
Currently, Waterbury has more than 15 school nurse facilities.
That’s stretching the nurses over the slim staff.
The health department wanted to create something similar to the police department’s training center.
Some kind of pipeline to create momentum and ultimately keep the nurses here.
A big factor contributing to the shortfall is the higher paying nursing jobs.
Phyllis Levy is the president of the School Nurses Association.
Without long-term appointments at schools, she said, it could be a potentially dangerous situation for students with medical conditions.
“Or, if someone has no health condition, but suddenly they have some symptoms and I know the student, and look at the records, look at the records, that’s not normal for the child. hey,” said Levy, nurse at Rotella Magnet School.
No one knows this better than Hope Fenn.
She was a nurse at Gilmartin Elementary School for 18 years.
She says there is a misconception that school nurses are not as difficult as said, hospital nurses.
But for students, they are the only medical staff around.
“We were the only ones in the school, like in a hospital you have your doctor, you have other therapists, other nurses you can handle things with. This is you, so you have to have really good judgment skills,” says Fenn.
If you want to apply to be a school nurse in the City of Brass, click here.
Copyright 2022 WFSB. Copyright Registered.
