CAMDEN, S.C. — School nurses are finally receiving some relief after being slammed with hundreds of students with COVID-19 when school began in August.
The latest data shows, COVID-19 cases in schools are on the decline after surging during the first money of the academic year.
"It has given our nurses an opportunity to do some other things.
said Elizabeth Starling, Kershaw County School District Nurse. "Because as you know, even though we were inundated with COVID-19 cases, we had health rooms to run and we still have students with chronic conditions."
Starling said with COVID cases under control, school nurses are able to focus on students with other health conditions like asthma and diabetes.
"We feel like we have a better hand on the crowds in our health rooms," Starling said. "We can spend more time with each student that comes into our health rooms."
Starling told News19 the county was able to hire three more nurses and two additional health assistants.
"We have had a little reprieve so we do feel a little better about what we’re doing now, and our health rooms," Starling said.
The president of the South Carolina School Nurse Association, Amanda Santamarie said that while some might be experiencing relief, other school districts are still seeing a high volume of work.
"The state's Department of Education and legislators placed more importance and some funding behind the need for a school nurse in every school in the state," Santamarie said. "So, we definitely have seen some districts where they have been able to relieve the pressure on maybe a nurse who was covering multiple buildings, multiple schools because they were able to fill those positions. But there are definitely some areas that nurses are still overwhelmed and still dealing with a lot, as a result of COVID-19."
Victoria Ladd, the state's school nurse consultant for DHEC and the Department of Education, said school districts could see a surge in cases next semester with the new COVID-19 variant, omicron,
"Although right now things are a little bit quiet, we are heading into school winter break where we know there will be a lot of travel, there will be a lot of mingling of groups and family, and that would probably make cases rise anyways," Ladd said. "But, with the new variant, we just don’t know what will happen."
She added that, with the new variant, health officials are not sure what is going to happen after the holiday break but they are continuing to monitor any outbreaks.
DHEC is working with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Foundation on a nationwide campaign to help supply staff for various efforts in public health. Ladd said this initiative includes schools and that the CDCF is placing over 100 staff to support school nurses and school health services in the Palmetto State.