Only one school nurse for every 8,500 pupils in Spanish schools: “It could be the difference between life and death”

Only one school nurse for every 8,500 pupils in Spanish schools: “It could be the difference between life and death”

Image: Consejo General de Enfermería

Whether a school has a school nurse or not could be the difference between life or death should an emergency arise, and Spanish schools have only one for every 8,500 pupils.

Spain only has one school nurse for every 8,497 pupils, according to the General Council of Nursing, which described the presence of these professionals as “clearly insufficient” in many communities.

The differences between regions are enormous: Madrid has 700 school nurses for every 1,198,079 pupils and Cataluña only has 70 for every 1,327,705 children.

The situation is paradoxical, as in Spain it is compulsory to have an occupational nurse at companies with more than 500 workers, but not in schools with hundred or even thousands of pupils.

So far, more than 50,000 signatures have been collected from individuals and associations and they have been delivered to the Congress of Deputies to request a nurse in every school.

“We think it is essential to have a nurse in every school, not only to care for children but also to carry out their role as health educators,” Engràcia Soler Pardo, president of ACISE-ACEESE (Spanish Scientific Association of Nursing and School Health) said. She added: “There is a great lack of knowledge both in society and in the political world about the work that a nurse does in a school”.

“We are calling for a law that allows there to be a nurse in every school in Spain because there is a very big difference depending on the community. Here in Madrid there are around 700, but in other communities they are non-existent,” she lamented.

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Written by

Tamsin Brown

Originally from London, Tamsin is based in Malaga and is a local reporter for the Euro Weekly News covering Spanish and international news. Got a news story you want to share? Then get in touch at editorial@euroweeklynews.com.

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