Next year half of schools will have a nurse who will go to provide care

BarcelonaAdministering insulin to a diabetic student or changing a gastric button are needs that teachers or school assistants at schools and institutes often have to manage. These are tasks for which many have no training and which generate insecure situations for families and also for the teachers who have to manage these types of cases. Now, however, in some educational centers these episodes will be reduced, as the Government has announced that next year half of schools and institutes – public and private – will have a nurse who will come to the center to provide care. This does not mean that each school will have a nurse permanently, but rather that the same professional will be responsible for this task in several schools and institutes in the area in a programmed manner. The forecast is that this Education and Health program will reach all centers in the 2027-2028 academic year.

The initiative arises from a pilot plan that has been tested throughout this academic year in the Metropolitan North Health Region, that is, in the educational centers of Maresme and Vallès Oriental, and which the Government has valued "satisfactorily". "The educational community asked us that these cares and this health attention should not be carried out by support monitoring staff or the teachers themselves, but rather to have the guarantee of having health care during teaching hours by health professionals," admitted the Director General of Inclusive Education and Student Well-being, Susana Tarapiella, this Wednesday from Granollers, within the framework of the closing conference of the pilot test of this new care model.

Test in 57 centers

The pilot plan has been tested in Granollers, Cardedeu, la Garriga and l'Ametlla del Vallès, in a total of 57 centers with approximately 22,000 students. During the course, 204 cases were attended. Of these, 157 were of what is considered zero intensity – situations in which direct health intervention is not necessary, but rather the training and empowerment of teaching teams –; 25 of moderate intensity – cases in which students require health care at the center on a punctual basis, with a maximum frequency of two days per week – and 22 of high intensity – students who require the daily presence of a nurse or an auxiliary care technician.

Despite the positive evaluation of the pilot plan, sources from the Department of Education clarify that the extension of the measure to all centers does not foresee the disappearance of the figure of health support monitoring (health caregivers), but it does aim for these professionals not to have to assume invasive care and to be able to focus on functions related to the personal autonomy and hygiene of the students.