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Golf tournament benefits school nurses
Jonathan E. Coleman / jcoleman@independenttribune.com
Jason Handler watches his pitch shot during the Fifth Annual Swing for the Kids Golf Tournament, held on Monday at the Cabarrus Country Club.
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Published: October 13, 2009
The Fifth Annual Swing for the Kids Golf Tournament was held Monday, at the Cabarrus Country Club in Concord.
Even with the rain, 88 golfers braved the damp cold course.
The money raised by the tournament helps fund the School Health Nurse Program, which places a nurse in every school in the Cabarrus County and Kannapolis City school systems.
"The CHA contributes 49 percent (of total costs), and the two school systems contribute 47 percent, and the remaining 4 percent comes from contributions and fees," said Betty Braxton, human resources director for the Cabarrus Health Alliance. "The Cabarrus Medical Society Alliance adopted the school health nurse program five years ago. The estimated cost of a school health nurse is $ 35,000 salaries, fringe benefit cost and supplies. We are the largest county in North Carolina that has a nurse in every public school."
It took more than 40 volunteers, and six months of planning for the event, which was started five years ago by the Cabarrus County Medicine Society Alliance and has raised more than $114,000 in the past four tournaments.
"The goal is as much as we can get," Lynn Takla, the golf tournament chair said.
It is the goal of the Medical Society Alliance to raise one salary per year.
"The Cabarrus County Medical Society Alliance is an organization made up of physicians' spouses. Many of these are families with children," Takla said. "Part of the mission statement of our alliance is that we are supposed to promote health within the community we live in. Often times, for school age children, the school nurse is the only access they have to any health-care provider. It helps promote health. We want children to be healthy."
The tournament also helps build relationships.
"Just to have the camaraderie in the community, besides the financial support, is very important," said School Health Nurse Program Director Jan Odell.
There has been a growing effort in the past five years to put some state money towards school nursing, Odell said, but that is still very limited.
The average nurse to student ratio nationwide was one for every 1,151 students, according to a 2008 survey by the National Association of School Nurses.
The survey also found that only 45 percent of public schools have their own full-time nurse, another 30 percent have a part-time nurse, and a quarter don't have any nurses.
In 1998, the Cabarrus County program had two school nurses, and in 1999 it expanded to a nurse in every school, but for the state of North Carolina the ratio was one nurse per 2,198 students.
Since 2000, Cabarrus County and Kannapolis City schools have met that objective ratio set by the CDC.
The 39 nurses in Cabarrus schools are employed by the Cabarrus Health Alliance.
Population growth and ongoing construction of new schools, causes the program to constantly expand.
"It's been an extra commitment to the program, because we have had to dig deep — the school systems and the Cabarrus Health Alliance — so having a group like medical alliance helps tremendously keep the nurses there," Odell said.
The program provides a professional nurse in each Cabarrus County and Kannapolis City Schools to prevent and identify student health or health related problems, and to treat injured or sick students while at school.
Each nurse is considered part time because of the school calendar. They work 180 days a year, and six and a half hours each day.
The funding keeps the nurses from being full time with full benefits.
"If we were a stagnant county I don't think we'd still be here, or able to develop this to start with, but we are a growing county. The growth has demanded to keep a nurse in every school, and add one every year for new schools, rather than to go back and increase hours or benefits," Odell said.
Why are school nurses important?
School nurses contribute directly to the student's quality of life as well as the health of the family, and the community, Cabarrus Health Alliance officials said.
"When parents send their children to school, they are comforted knowing there is a medical professional on campus who really does know how to respond to a head injury or a seizure for the first time," Odell said. "Maybe a child who was just diagnosed a diabetic over the weekend, is going back to school Tuesday morning, and is going to need help with a finger prick or insulin. Those are the significant things that not every child in North Carolina has an opportunity to have. Many of the counties around us have a nurse who can visit the school maybe once a week."
• Contact reporter Robin L. Gardner: 704-789-9140
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