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Nurses association issues petition for full staff at schools

"Few bigger schools with more than 40 classes hire more than one nurse."

-- Ko Zhen-fei, school nurse

Students with serious chronic conditions such as epilepsy, diabetes and heart conditions are being put at risk by a lack of qualified nurses at the nation's schools, the School Nurses' Association said yesterday.

On the eve of International Nursing Day, the group issued a petition to the Ministry of Education calling for all schools in the country to be fully staffed according the School Health Act (學校衛生法).

The 2002 law stipulates that every school with less than 40 classes should be staffed with at least one qualified nurse and schools with more than 40 classes should have at least two.

However, there are 164 schools nationwide without any nursing staff, mostly in remote and mountainous regions, the association said.

Even bigger schools in prosperous areas can be under-staffed, school nurse Ko Zhen-fei (柯貞妃) told a press conference yesterday.

"Few bigger schools with more than 40 classes hire more than one nurse -- despite the law -- resulting in lower-quality care, especially for students with chronic conditions such as diabetes and epilepsy," she said.

"Even worse, nurses are often roped in to do administrative duties, taking up hours during their work day when they should be caring for students," she said.

One group that especially requires dedicated school nurses are epileptic children, said Kwan Shang-yeong (關尚勇), secretary-general of the Children's Epilepsy Association.

"When a child has an epileptic episode at school, there should be a trained medical professional on site who can take care of the situation," said Kwan, who also attended the press conference.

There are no penalties in place for schools that do not comply with the act.

One problem is that regional governments face budgeting constraints, said Fu Wei-wei (傅瑋瑋), a section chief at the Department of Physical Education who received the petition on behalf of the Ministry of Education.

"The central government makes the laws and the regional governments have to pay the bills," Fu said.
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