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Sunday, February 8, 2009
Losing school nurses would hurt learning in the classrooms
As Georgia legislators consider whether to cut funding for our school nurses, I want them to understand the volume and variety of illnesses our school nurses face and how much good they do each day.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
325.
That is the average number of kids our school nurse sees in a week.
That would also be the average number of times teachers would be interrupted from their lessons to care for sick children (possibly incorrectly) if the Georgia legislature votes to eliminate funding for our school nurse and others like her across the state.
Our school nurse is a registered nurse and has been at our school for 21 years. She is absolutely essential to running it! Every time I’m in the front office, which is often, I am amazed at the volume and variety of illnesses with which she is dealing.
She told me she sees students with Diabetes, seizure disorders, ADHD, food allergies which require Epipens, Ectodermal Dysplasia (an inability to perspire), GERD, heart problems, rickets, sickle cell anemia, IBS, kidney problems, false eyes, 135 cases of asthma that often require treatment with a nebulizer or inhaler, Juvenile Arthritis, cancer and hemophilia. And of course there are your every day head lice, hygiene, broken bones, random vomiting and fevers.
I’m pretty sure most of our state legislators would have no idea how cool down a child who couldn’t perspire or help a hemophiliac child who has cut himself on the playground. And I don’t think our teachers, clinic staff or parents who have no medical training should be asked to deal with these types of medical issues either. If the state insists on untrained or minimally trained personnel caring for students’ medical needs, eventually it will get sued or worse a child could die.
A friend of mine received an email from our school nurse recently. It said I think your daughter may have a kidney infection. She wrote based on where her back and stomach are hurting, the way she is walking and the fact that it hurts when she urinates, I think she has a kidney infection.
My friend took her daughter to the doctor immediately and guess what? She did have a kidney infection.
This same little girl was having repeated stomach aches at school. Our nurse felt like it was anxiety over doing well. The nurse reassured the child and worked with her mother to help her relax her and keep her at school. The stomach aches have subsided.
Our nurse says that sometimes when kids visit her they may not be medically ill but they’re coming to her for a reason. They need something - reassurance, support, sometimes just a hug. She notes when kids come in frequently and involves administrators or counselors if she thinks there’s something more at play.
Another mom I know was having a terrible time figuring out her daughter’s severe asthma and allergy issues. Her daughter had missed 20 days of school in kindergarten. My friend was unsure when her daughter was OK to send to school. The pediatrician and his pamphlets just kept saying if she didn’t have a fever she was good to go. But my friend wasn’t so sure. Her daughter was exhausted and felt terrible often. Our school nurse offered to review the child’s symptoms with the mom in the morning to help her evaluate whether she should attend school that day. Consulting with the school nurse helped my friend feel more confident about sending her child and also helped her become a better judge of her daughter’s condition. This year, her daughter has only missed one day.
I’ve been lucky so far. The worst thing I’ve been called in for was my oldest daughter throwing up repeatedly. When I got to the school, the nurse had cleaned her up and re-dressed her in the school’s emergency sweats. Our nurse took one look at me, my brand new baby and 4-year-old and knew some counseling was needed.
She gave me the full run-down on how to keep from contaminating my nursing baby with Rose’s nasty stomach virus. She also gave me advice on how long to wait to feed Rose, how to keep her hydrated and how to know if I needed to call the doctor. Finally, she sent me home with some latex gloves since she knew I couldn’t stop at a drug store with a child vomiting every few minutes.
I was grateful for all the advice and especially for the gloves. They did prevent me passing the virus to my other children - which every mother knows is a miracle!
I feel safe sending my child to school because I know our school nurse is there. I know if there is a problem it will be handled correctly until I can get my child to our pediatrician.
A friend points out that the school districts or even parents could pay to keep the school nurses if the state does away with their funding, and we may very well have to do that.
I know that our country and our state are in economic straits but I think this is NOT the right cut to make. I would implore Georgia legislators to search for fat elsewhere in the state budget before they cut an essential part of our schools. They should know that learning would absolutely be affected by losing our school nurses!
You can reach Theresa at ajcmomania@gmail.com. Ideas and comments are welcome.
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