School Nurses
 

What purpose do they really serve?

My step daughter had the typical 9 year old girl stomach ache. So she goes to the nurse, nurse calls mommy, mommy is at work so naturally mommy calls me.

honey-do list item for the day thus far is to drive to the store and purchase children's peto bismol (apparently if you give a 9 year old regular "non childrens" pepto bismol it will immediately erode their liver into a mush and kill them:haha:)

so store number one is sold out of Children's pepto

Store number two is also sold out of the stuff

Store number three has it!

so after a 3 store med-hunt for this crap and a sprite (there is a mystical belief within the 9 year old segment of this household's population that sprite fixes stomach problems) i go to the school and deliver the substances to the child who almost immediately recovers because its time to play in P.E. :-?

medical miracle :shifty:

so why didnt the nurse just give the kid a couple of childrens pepto and not interrupt my playing pac man, surfing subsim and clicking through a slide show of greatest cheerleader screw ups?

fear of litigation?

i mean - dont they keep a list of parents who say its ok for you to give my kid advil, tylenol, asprin, pepto bismol and euthanasia?

too much work though i guess to do that

i propose we rename school nurses to "wellness liaisons" because thats exactly what they are... liaisons that report your kids minor discomforts to you and then expect you to travel all over hells half acre playing House M.D. :down:

:rotfl2:

Great story! :rock:

Of course that is not true. I know from personal experience that only 7-Up has that ability. :O:

We don't even have school nurses (or school police officers...). I guess the problem is the "everyone can sue everyone for everything" situation in the US. If the nurse gives some medicine to a child and the problem doesn't go away or in the worst case the child gets a allergic reaction or any other non beneficial reaction to the stuff the courts could be all over the nurse or even the entire school.

I remember when i was in elementary school, when i would come down with some stomach ache or headache.

I would go to the nurse, nurse would give me a peppermint and call parent, parent would say "give him a tylenol and send him back to class"

The end

neat story

but yes i understand the litigation standpoint...

what i dont understand is that we can put a man on the moon, submerge a tiny submarine to the bottom of the ocean and make a robot drill holes in the surface of a planet 35 million miles away

but we cant make a list of kids who are ok to take one advil, one tylenol or one anti-diarrhea pill

which brings me full circle to spankings

why are we not doing that at school anymore? I remember getting my butt paddled at school and the sinking realization as the day drew to a close that i was going to have to get another butt paddling when i got home.

you wanna know where we went wrong as a nation... look no further than that right there

This is in my humble opinion nonsense. During the Nazi time we've had corporal punishment in schools and it obviously didn't makes us better people (ask the local Poles and Russians about that...). Is the current generations of Germans worse than my parents generation? By all accounts of the older ones yes. Funny fact is that my parent's generation already had no corporal punishment in school anymore so it can't be the cause of that.
Besides corporal punishment will open the gates for (sexual) abuse. There are actually (not so few) people who sexually enjoy beating others and I would not want my children to go to a school where someone might beat them on the rear for whatever reason especially not if a male person can spank a female student.

http://i298.photobucket.com/albums/m...a29bac5e7c.jpg

We had a nurse at school, but she was only really for first aid purposes. I don't recall painkillers being needed often, I imagine they were probably available on request. Only time I ever needed to see the nurse (who was also one of the science class assistants) was when I stuck a sewing machine needle blunt end first into the palm of my hand. Tried to get the thing out with a pair of pliers but it wouldn't budge, the Woodwork teacher recommended I go and see the nurse and she took me to the Docs who removed it with some local. :yep:

When did you stop corporal punishment? There's bound to be a delay in seeing effects one way or the other.

It was abolished in 1949 in the German democratic republic and discouraged in west Germany at about the same time. West Germany abolished it completely in 1973 but at that time it had already pretty much ceased to be used anyway from what I hear. My parents who went to school during the 50ies and 60ies were not hit in school in Lower Saxony.

Blimey, we didn't stop ours officially until the 1980s, but I think it had been stopped by most schools unofficially before then.

I think the purpose of a school nurse is primarily to fulfill the requirement for a school nurse.

Beating kids is totally legit, don't worry everyone!
The pope says so! :up:

You also drive on the left side of the road so you're excused.:O:
:D

Fixed.:D

Spare the rod...
 

And all you'll have is a spare rod...
and kids who never learn right from wrong.:-?

Just don't beat them bloody... or dead.:huh::timeout:

My school nurse story:

I slipped in 2nd period gym class, and broke my elbow. I went to the nurse. The nurse didn't believe that I broke my elbow. I went through the entire rest of the day in school, holding my arm level with my free hand.

I ended up staying in the hospital 3 days for surgery. I consequently have only about 80% of the full range of motion in that arm. The surgeon said it probably wasn't the best thing in the world to have my arm left untreated for the entire school day.

Best part was, the school's insurance refused to pay my hospital expenses. That finally changed when my parents threatened to sue. They probably should have sued anyway, as the school was clearly negligent. I fell in a hallway leading from the swimming pool. There was standing water on the floor, and unlike around public swimming pools where the concrete floor's rough texture provides traction, the smooth, large-tiled floor in the hallway provided absolutely none. My classmates would happily get running starts so they could slide on the water. I walked, and I was the one who fell.

By the time I graduated 4 years later, no changes had been made. No railing, no new floor, no mats, nothing.

But hey, the nurse apologized to me after I returned to school from the hospital. So that's something.

Our school nurse doesn't even work the full week. She's there two days a week. A secretary usually fills in. The only things they are allowed to do is give off-brand tylenol and ice packs. And, of course, you better not get injured or sick after 2:30PM because they won't help you unless you're seriously really injured.

It's pathetic. I carry around my own pills (if need be) and I carry around my own first aid bag inside my gym bag. Gauze and athletic tape will do better than the stupid smiley face band-aid they can give me. If I get a big gash or bloody injury (hasn't happened at school thus far) I know to go straight to the athletic equipment room because smiley face isn't enough.

At least they'll send you home if you do anything more than sniffle...because the best way to deal with a sick kid is to not deal with a sick kid. Nurse even drove me home once since both parents were out working.

Makes you wonder why it takes schooling to become a nurse in the first place if you're just gonna waste all those skills on something like this... (Nothing against nurses, my mom is a nurse...) but school nurses IMHO are absolutely useless. Teach kids who are old enough how to deal with things. First Aid, CPR, how to use an EpiPen, how to read labels on the back of a tylenol.... By the time you're in 7th-8th grade you don't need somebody holding your hand and wiping your bottom.

As far as young kids go, sure. I can see why you could make an argument...but maybe teachers should take more of an active role in that. A teacher in Kindergarten is like a third parent. Why not train and authorize the teachers to do the job of the school "nurse"?

It's all a big insurance thing...but why is it helpful to have a skill-disabled nurse on staff just to call parents.

Most don't see what a school nurse truly does. Working in sports medicine at a school, I have the opportunity to work with the school nurse, and see what she actually does. The nurse is actually there in case there is a true emergency. The nurse is responsible for working with students and parents to help injured students with their needs. Work with students with a physical disability and their parents. Supervise students who need to take medicine during the school day. Record keeping for students who carry emergency medications, or have some long term problem. And now, working with me for helping with students who have concussions return to school. Responsible for emergency plans. Tummy aches and boo-boos are taken care of by the nurse because it's convenient. In my school district, parents are supposed to be notified for everything.

I agree with fireftr18 they do a lot that you don't see in most cases so far as I am aware they are usually RNs. I know for certain one very important thing that they do is store the medications for the kids that need them and the student can go at a pricrbed to take said meds.

Also they should be able to identify when a student has a serious injury or contagious illness. As I recall in grade school and middle there was a nurse in high school there was a full time nurse and a second nurse whose primary job was teaching the class that students interest ed in healthcare could take to get a jump on college.

On the occasion that I barfed rice crispies all over my friend she was not so helpful. There it was the custodian with the barf absorb kitty litter stuff and the announcement for barf clean up on the intercom that really builds character.


I can recall several occasions where the school nurse did help two where students having seziures the second was a pregnant girls water breaking in class. The later was most incredible as she was in the desk next to mine I've never been so amazed by the beauty of..... No actually I never vacated a seat so quickly in my life it was disgusting girl looked like the diseased type if you cath my meaning.


There surely is a real liability reason as well say a student dose get a serious injury or becomes ill then the nurse can ID this situation. Of course my mother taught for many years and in that time came to know many adminstrations (double secret probation information) school boards nearly always settle out of court.