The Association of Schools and Agencies for the Handicapped (ASAH), a group of 142 private schools that receive state and local financing, has successfully lobbied the New Jersey State Board of Education to remove the requirement for at least one full-time equivalent certified school nurse in every school district, from the New Jersey Administrative Code 6A:16.2.
The New Jersey State School Nurses Association (NJSSNA) believes that the removal of this requirement will lower the standard of care for all New Jersey students and will prove to be detrimental to the safety of students.
Information presented to the state Board of Education and to newspaper editors by ASAH is not entirely accurate. ASAH has stated, in a letter to the editor from Gerard Thiers, executive director, that these schools prefer to have a critical care nurse (RN), rather than a certified school nurse, implying that the certified school nurse is not capable of performing critical care nursing duties.
Every certified school nurse is first and foremost a registered nurse, with the ability to perform any and all nursing procedures, including critical care, within the scope of the Nurse Practice Act.
To become a registered nurse, a minimum of two years of higher education or training is required. All certified school nurses meet this minimum.
In order to become a certi-fied school nurse, a baccalau-reate degree is required as well as additional education credits beyond that degree.
Therefore, the certified school nurse has at least three more years of educational preparation above the minimum required to be licensed as a registered nurse.
To state that the certified school nurse is a generalist is patently incorrect.
The certified school nurse is indeed a specialist in utilizing all of her nursing education and professional competency within the educational framework to enhance student performance, ensure student well being and safety and interact within the school community and the greater community to promote those goals. If critical care is needed, the certified school nurse can and will provide that care.
Rather than step backward in providing health care services for the 1.39 million children in the 2,413 New Jersey public schools, it would seem that some accommodation could be made for less than 142 small private schools for the disabled who are providing one-on-one nursing care to all their students.
The New Jersey Department of Education offers these small school districts a simple one-page application asking for permission to waive the requirement for a full-time equivalent certified school nurse.
Although NJSSNA does not promote the use of these equivalency waivers, they are available to those small districts who are finding it “burdensome” to provide their students with the most qualified person to provide care during the school day.
The DOE’s consideration and approval process should move with speed, provided that these schools demonstrate that all of their students are receiving the nursing care delineated in their individual education plans and attested to in their nursing service plan.
The New Jersey State School Nurses Association reaffirms its position that every child, especially the child with a disability, deserves the services of a full-time certified school nurse.
Beverly P. Stern
Freehold Township
executive director
New Jersey State School Nurses Association