Oregon schools stare down nursing shortage with no solution in sight

PORTLAND, Ore. — Two industries have carried perhaps the largest weight of the coronavirus pandemic; healthcare, and education.

The worlds collide at Oregon schools, where nurses are more short-staffed than ever.

A goal by the Oregon Department of Education prior to the pandemic was to provide one nurse for every 750 students.

In a recent report from the Oregon Education Association, they said there's currently one nurse for every 4,572 students.

"Our school nurses are also finding themselves burned out," said Reed Scott-Schwalbach, President of OEA. "They're dealing with all of the COVID tracking, COVID paperwork, and they're not addressing the normal needs that students have."

KATU News reached out to the Oregon Department of Education. They declined to take part in an interview to discuss the issue of nursing shortages in Oregon schools.

They sent us a statement from Ely Sanders, Education Specialist in School Health Services with ODE.

"ODE is aware of the shortages of school nurses in our schools across the state. In addition, the pandemic has put additional strain on the education workforce. ODE has worked to address the school nurse shortage by:

"Developing close relationships with the Oregon School Nurse Association, the Oregon Health Authority (OHA), and other stakeholders to increase support for districts, nurses, and families in relation to school nursing. This included establishing a school nurse consultant position at OHA. More recently, ODE received legislative funding to establish a full-time School Health Services position.

"ODE has highlighted the opportunity for districts to use state Student Success Act (SSA) funding and recent Federal Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funding to support the health and safety of students by hiring school health staff.

"ODE has increased support to districts related to school Medicaid billing. This work was directly related to the school nurse shortage in our state. A 2015 Governor’s appointed taskforce identified school Medicaid billing as an opportunity to increase funding that could pay for more school nurses in our state. As a result, ODE completed a three-year pilot project described in a 2020 report to the legislature. ODE was provided two permanent positions to support districts in accessing these federal funds for school health services.

"We continue to be committed to increasing the number of nurses in our schools as well as supporting our current school nurse workforce."

The state did run a task force in 2015 on this issue, but 7 years later the nursing shortage has only gotten worse. And two years into the coronavirus pandemic, that burden is now falling squarely on the shoulders of teachers.

"When you have students that are showing up with extremely complex needs, in these large classes without the additional resources, people are getting burned out and they don't have time to be successful," said Scott-Schwalbach.