School Nurses: Unsung Heroes of Public Education

There is a common misconception that the role of school nurses only includes the occasional first aid duties and caring for kids with a cold or the flu. Yet, the truth is that the responsibilities of school nurses are critical to monitoring and maintaining healthy and thriving schools. School Nurses are foundational to making public education available to every student regardless of any and all pre-existing health conditions and circumstances.

As Head nurse, Debi Bradfield put it, “ Everyday I am constantly bombarded everywhere at school - in the hallways, in the lunchroom, in the classroom, on the playground- with the responsibility of assessing what I see to make sure students are okay.” She shared that as a school nurse, she uses ALL of her nursing skills all the time. “ There is an idea that schools nurses operate very differently than a

Counter to what people may think, which is that school nurses are there to send students home when sick, their job is actually to do everything they can to treat, prevent, and monitor to make sure that students can continue to learn without the barriers that poor health can cause.

A credentialed school nurse is by law, a registered nurse with at least a bachelor's degree in nursing and usually a Public Health Nurse certification, plus the necessary School Health Services Credential. The health credential takes at least another two years of education beyond the bachelor's, plus hands-on work.

Plumas Unified has two school nurses - Debi Bradfield, in Quincy and Emilee Pruitt, in Portola. PUSD also has Licensed Vocational Nurses (LVNs) at most school sites. LVNs are very important to providing licensed nurse health services in schools. Our LVNS work part-time at the schools and attend to all things first aid plus medication administration including insulin calculations, asthma care, comfort, encouragement, and calling