MILWAUKEE — The need is great for school nurses but there's a massive shortage of nurses available to fill the jobs, with an expected shortage of 20,000 nurses by 2035.
@TheTable Tuesday night was Kelly Barlow-Eichman, a school nurse and President of the Wisconsin Association of School Nurses.
"A school nurse ensures that every student is healthy, safe, and ready to learn," said Barlow-Eichman. "The intervention that's needed by nurses differs for every student depending on their medical needs."
The Wisconsin Department of Health Services recently provided $8.3 million to help recruit and retain K-12 school nurses.
"It's really important that school districts are keeping up with the same hourly rate that nurses could be getting either in a hospital or even those travel nurses," Barlow-Eichman said @The Table.
The state says the funding is from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
"I think it's just opening up the conversation," said Barlow-Eichman. "Starting to recognize the need for school nurses and why we need to have more funding for school nurses."
To learn more, visit Wisconsin Education Career Access Network's website.
