In a Harsh Landscape, School Nurses are Nevada’s Most Resilient Lifeline

IN PARTS OF NEVADA, one school nurse is expected to cover entire towns — a concierge‑level service model stretched across miles of desert. It is a striking contradiction: School nurses are among the most trusted professionals in America, yet inside their own systems they are often trusted the least. That gap is finally beginning to close.

Public high school principals rely on school nurses more than almost any other staff member. Today’s public schools demand a dedicated, highly trained professional who cares for the physical, emotional and psychological well‑being of both students and staff. School nurses are often the first to recognize emerging concerns and the ones who connect families with the support they need.

It is striking to look back on Nevada’s history and see how far the profession has come. Clark County hired its first school nurse in 1932 — 30 years after Lillian Wald founded school nursing. In 1955, those early nurses helped deliver the Salk polio vaccine, running free community clinics and serving as the public health leaders they remain today.

Adding to the ingenuity of the time, between 1922 and 1957, Nevada had no in‑state nursing schools, forcing aspiring nurses to leave the state to pursue their calling. That absence did not weaken the profession; it strengthened the determination of those who chose it.

Their inspiration follows in the footsteps of many leaders who shaped the field: Mary Eliza Mahoney, the first professionally trained Black nurse, who graduated in 1879; and Robin Cogan, the “Relentless School Nurse” whose recent passing is deeply felt but whose legacy endures.

What must it have felt like to be that pioneer school nurse? Perhaps similar to today: standing at the dawn of a new era shaped by AI, shifting demographics, and rising health needs with a broken and underfunded health system. School nurses are preparing for that landscape because children deserve nothing less. 

Before the Joshua tree or the bighorn sheep took hold in Nevada, the Mojave was a place of extremes — blistering heat, low rainfall, nutrient‑poor soil. Over time, life adapted, stretched and rooted itself into something resilient and beautiful. The same kind of adaptation is happening now as school nurses rise as public‑health professionals, entrepreneurs and innovators.

The National School Nurse Workforce Study 2.0 found that 87% of U.S. adults hold a favorable view of school nurses — the highest rating of any school staff. When people learn what school nurses actually do, favorability rises to 91%. Four out of 5 parents say it is “absolutely essential” or “very important” for schools to have a registered nurse.

Yet awareness lags behind trust. Only 78% of adults know what school nurses actually do, and most of that awareness centers on visible, episodic tasks like first aid or the dreaded phone call interrupting your work day to pick up your sick child from school. The unseen work — managing chronic conditions, supporting mental and behavioral health, preventing communicable disease, connecting families to community resources, and collecting health data that informs public‑health decisions, to say nothing of nutrition — remains largely invisible. Misconceptions fueled by TikTok misinformation and unhelpful memes continue to distort the public’s understanding of school nursing.

The school nurse is a genuine partner in every effort to support students. They bring compassion and calm to situations that overwhelm students, families and staff. They create a climate where people feel valued and cared for. Whether coordinating a blood drive, collaborating with health teachers or responding to crises, they promote wellness, steady the school community and offer reassurance without judgment.

Their humility is not weakness; it is service. Children are the best part of their day, and they do this work with skill, love and gratitude. A new landscape is emerging. We know the current cultural aridity won’t erase an ecosystem; it will force it to become leaner, tougher and astonishingly resilient.

We welcome communities, legislators and school administrators to plant the seeds with us — seeds that will grow only when school nurses have a seat at the administrative table and when the true cost of their work is shared and understood. The question is not what it costs to fund school nurses, but what it will cost our communities if we fail to.

Nevada’s nurses once had to leave the state to learn their profession. They came back anyway. The least we can do now is build a system worthy of their return.