The School Nurse as a Mother Figure?

Nurses who receive a Bachelor of Science degree are required to take a course in community nursing, a part of which involves a clinic with a school nurse. My one-day clinic was extremely memorable, but for all the wrong reasons. I came away knowing that I would seek a position as a school nurse only as a last resort and with one other piece of knowledge: High school students saw the school nurse as a kind of substitute mother.

The nurse with whom I trained was extremely free in telling me about each student who entered her office. I learned not only the student’s medical history, but their emotional and sexual history as well. I assume it was the nurse’s substitute for watching soap operas in the afternoon, but I left feeling that this woman was entirely too involved in the lives of these Madison County high school students.

Now a local school nurse has been arrested for having a sexual relationship with a female student. I’m hearing some say “how dumb is that?” More to the point is “how immoral is that?” This nurse was both licensed as an LPN and married in 1993, years before her victim was born. At one time the nursing profession was seen as the most moral and ethical in the United States. Now it’s second to firefighting, and may be falling fast in the estimation of the public.

The moral? Parents are entirely too trusting when it comes to their children’s mentors. A friend once told me she was leery of anyone outside her family paying a great deal of attention to her children. Each day that passes only proves how right she was in this. Is there an upside to this story? Yes, Florence will again make the Daily Mail.


Nurse Nan