School Nurses

[GoldenRivet]

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)

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

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.

[Sailor Steve]

Great story!

Originally Posted by GoldenRivet

(there is a mystical belief within the 9 year old segment of this household's population that sprite fixes stomach problems)

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

[Schroeder]

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.

[GoldenRivet]

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

[Schroeder]

Originally Posted by GoldenRivet

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.

[Tango589]

Originally Posted by GoldenRivet

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?

[Oberon]

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.

[August]

Originally Posted by Schroeder

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.

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

[Schroeder]

Originally Posted by August

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.

[Oberon]

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

[Platapus]

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!

[Schroeder]

Originally Posted by Oberon

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

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

[nikimcbee]

Originally Posted by Schroeder

You also drive on the wrong side of the road so you're excused.

Fixed.

[Oberon]