School Nurses Understaffed, Overwhelmed

It's the beginning of a new school day in Ardmore, Oklahoma. But for school nurse Renita Dotson it's like every other day: busy.

Dotson is the only full-time nurse in a district with more than 3,000 students as CBS News Correspondent Don Teague reports.

On this morning she had two sick kids in her middle school office eve before the first bell rang. She spent the rest of the day treating and monitoring kids at six other schools across the city.

"We see them first and that's medical. We're not doctors but we do the best we can with what we have," she said.

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The school nurse workload in Ardmore is far from unique. On average, most school districts around the nation fall well short of the federal recommendation of at least one registered nurse for every 750 students.

The National Association of School Nurses says only 12 states and the District of Columbia meet the standard set by the Centers for Disease Control.

In Vermont there is a nurse for every 275 students. But many more states miss the mark: Oklahoma has just one nurse for every 3,100 students. In Utah, it's one nurse for nearly 4,900 students. About a quarter of all schools, at least 23,000 have no nurses at all.

"We have great concern for those children who are in schools without a nurse," said Amy Garcia, Executive Director of the National Association of School Nurses. "Particularly with the threat of a pandemic of H1N1 flu."

School nurses will be the first line of defense this fall.

"If we did have the nurses in the schools they could probably see the signs quicker," said Dotson.

In Ardmore, a million dollar cut in this year's budget left no room to hire more nurses.

"If we had just any extra money, we'd put more nurses in," said Ardmore Schools Assistant Superintendent Geneva Matlack.

Nurse Dotson like so many others is outnumbered and worried about what the upcoming flu season may bring.