Throughout 2022, we’ll bring you stories that speak to the current state of the healthcare workforce and the urgent need to PROTECT AND SUPPORT NURSES; design safe,  healthy work environments and cultures that attract, value, empower, add diversity to, and advance nurses. 

In 2022 we’ll point you to experts, innovators, catalysts, artists, tools, resources,  and more to increase well-being, mental fitness, clinical excellence, and joy in the work of improving health and saving lives.

SEE YOU NOW has always focused on the incredible stories of nurse-led health innovation and we’re pleased to introduce a new series -- Frontline Forces documenting the pandemic response of frontline nurses to the overwhelming challenges and uncertainty and the changing nature of nursing in the midst of evolving circumstances nurses are facing at this point in the pandemic.

School nurses are on the frontlines of community and public health. They play a critical role in the health, wellbeing, and readiness to learn for children around the world. And today --they are guiding schools, families, local officials, and public health departments through a global pandemic unlike anything seen in the past 100 years. Yet even before the pandemic school nurses were overtasked, under-resourced, and hard to find.

Despite recommendations from The American Academy of Pediatrics and the National School Nurses Association of having at least one registered nurse in every school, fewer than 40% of American public schools have a full-time nurse. COVID-19 has magnified the contribution of school nurses and the need for every student to have access to school nurses and each school district to have a fully funded, comprehensive health services program.

We checked in with school nurse Liz Pray, MSN-Ed, RN, NCSN in Washington State to learn about the role of a school nurse during a pandemic, how she is experiencing this moment, learning from and gaining strength from the support of her national school nursing community, and why school nurses are more important and essential than ever.

Have questions for the SEE YOU NOW team? Feedback? Future episode ideas? Contact us at hello@seeyounowpodcast.com.

Guests

• Liz Pray MSN-Ed, RN, NCSN

Episode Resources

• School nursing in America--1902-1994: a return to public health nursing
• School Nurse Shortage Named a ‘National Crisis’
• Framework for 21st Century School Nursing Practice
• WA Details of the governor’s 2022 supplemental budget
• School Nurse Deficit Deepens as States Seek Relief
• School Nurse Workforce Study
• School Nurses Adapting and Innovating in Response to COVID-19