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Thread: School Nurses, Parents POV

  1. #1
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    School Nurses, Parents POV

    Hi there, my name is Nichol and I am an extremely active parent within my school district in Phoenix, AZ.
    The reason I am here is the debate is raging in my school district about paying RN salaries vs health aid or EMT salaries in light of these economic times and budget cuts. I do get the emails from our nurses and the parents but, they all read the same.
    I need to formulate a fresh argument for retaining school nurses and the only way to do that is by speaking to fresh voices. I plan on speaking to the school governing board, local papers and parents again on this issue in favor of school nurses on all campuses. The last time this was an issue I was a small organizational voice in getting the RN salaries approved.



    The problem is parents tend to be reactionaries and imagine worse case scenerios. Last year a child collasped on the way to our nurses office. Although it was only moments before our nurse was by his side, minutes before he was away to a hospital, the child died a few days later in the best of hands, never having fully awaked from his coma. He was a friend of my childs and it was heart wrenching. The hope updates were the worst. They made us sure, every single update, he would come home (well but possibly altered mentally). When he died I hadn't properly prepared my son for it.
    (My 19 yr brother, my sons idol, had hung himself a few months before.)
    XXX's death was a tragic and unfortunate death of a true angel. It hurts so bad to think about it. It really, really hurts. But we had a yard sale and raised about $2,500 for burial costs so we could move on. And we did, as much as you ever can.

    But now that we're talking about cutting RN's again the subject of that boys death is back on the table on our message board. We can't cut RN's, we had a kid die! I responded to the message stating
    "While I agree an RN is mandatory for every campus I disagree with bringing XXX death into this. The death of XXX an unavoidable tragedy that would have yielded the same results be it RN or health nurse calling 911. I will not let my baby sons friends death become the basis of political fodder.

    I think, if we focus on individual cases, we should speak of the compound fracture or other severe injuries on campus that required immediate care or stabilization. I can speak of my sons concussion received in school; and extra care received after a non school related injury.
    You can speak to your childs medical condition or belief that when accidents happen at school you want someone qualified to treat them.
    We can all speak to the next childs unknown medical history and that's why we need RN's.

    If all else fails,
    I, an average Mom (sick at the sight of blood) qualifies for "Health Aid"
    How scary is that? "

    Now I seem to be a pariah for admitting I'm not qualified to serve our students health and calling some out playing on the dead kid card.
    So what. I don't want to hang with people that play that way. It's just sick and makes my guts hurt.
    The best brain surgeons in the state couldn't save the boy. So why is his death becoming political fodder? It makes me sick that parents (not our RN, the woman is a saint above this claptrap) are using this as a background for our case to retain RN's. We have our own case. The case of the living students who need care by a professional but can't afford a Doctors office visit withought an ER.
    Anyway, I guess I needed to get that out. I don't know if I made sense.
    Writing that part about the kids made me emotional.
    But I'm posting this anyway for release.

  2. #2
    Ricu
    Guest

    Re: School Nurses, Parents POV

    Quote Originally Posted by Kookala View Post
    Hi there, my name is Nichol and I am an extremely active parent within my school district in Phoenix, AZ.
    The reason I am here is the debate is raging in my school district about paying RN salaries vs health aid or EMT salaries in light of these economic times and budget cuts. I do get the emails from our nurses and the parents but, they all read the same.
    I need to formulate a fresh argument for retaining school nurses and the only way to do that is by speaking to fresh voices. I plan on speaking to the school governing board, local papers and parents again on this issue in favor of school nurses on all campuses. The last time this was an issue I was a small organizational voice in getting the RN salaries approved.



    The problem is parents tend to be reactionaries and imagine worse case scenerios. Last year a child collasped on the way to our nurses office. Although it was only moments before our nurse was by his side, minutes before he was away to a hospital, the child died a few days later in the best of hands, never having fully awaked from his coma. He was a friend of my childs and it was heart wrenching. The hope updates were the worst. They made us sure, every single update, he would come home (well but possibly altered mentally). When he died I hadn't properly prepared my son for it.
    (My 19 yr brother, my sons idol, had hung himself a few months before.)
    XXX's death was a tragic and unfortunate death of a true angel. It hurts so bad to think about it. It really, really hurts. But we had a yard sale and raised about $2,500 for burial costs so we could move on. And we did, as much as you ever can.

    But now that we're talking about cutting RN's again the subject of that boys death is back on the table on our message board. We can't cut RN's, we had a kid die! I responded to the message stating
    "While I agree an RN is mandatory for every campus I disagree with bringing XXX death into this. The death of XXX an unavoidable tragedy that would have yielded the same results be it RN or health nurse calling 911. I will not let my baby sons friends death become the basis of political fodder.

    I think, if we focus on individual cases, we should speak of the compound fracture or other severe injuries on campus that required immediate care or stabilization. I can speak of my sons concussion received in school; and extra care received after a non school related injury.
    You can speak to your childs medical condition or belief that when accidents happen at school you want someone qualified to treat them.
    We can all speak to the next childs unknown medical history and that's why we need RN's.

    If all else fails,
    I, an average Mom (sick at the sight of blood) qualifies for "Health Aid"
    How scary is that? "

    Now I seem to be a pariah for admitting I'm not qualified to serve our students health and calling some out playing on the dead kid card.
    So what. I don't want to hang with people that play that way. It's just sick and makes my guts hurt.
    The best brain surgeons in the state couldn't save the boy. So why is his death becoming political fodder? It makes me sick that parents (not our RN, the woman is a saint above this claptrap) are using this as a background for our case to retain RN's. We have our own case. The case of the living students who need care by a professional but can't afford a Doctors office visit withought an ER.
    Anyway, I guess I needed to get that out. I don't know if I made sense.
    Writing that part about the kids made me emotional.
    But I'm posting this anyway for release.

    Hi Nichol,

    What a difficult decision this is for you especially on the heels of a very personal tragedy! You are wise to try to separate the specific incident that you have suffered from the overall picture that you're trying to put together. Let me offer a few thoughts. On one hand, the school nurse is there and anything that could happen is handled by the "time honored" medical professional. On the other hand, an EMT or paramedic could be there to handle the emergencies and injuries which comprise the usual complement of need.

    That said, let's explore how the health education in your school district would be handled if the nurse was not there. Who would do it? What about the physicals? While paramedics administer emergency medications, most of the rest of the prescription medications given to school age children are not in their scope of practice. Furthermore, is the EMT or paramedic prepared to counsel the student about STDs and birth control options?

    I've pointed to a few medical situations which come up but what about the psychological and/or emotional issues plagueing today's society? Many times the school nurse is the first line of inquiry when it comes to physical and emotional abuse. Other situations commonly encountered by the school involve learning disabilities, developmental delays, chemimcal dependency, financial hardship, and so on. Clearly these issues are out of the scope of professionals trained solely for emergency response and obviously, my statements point in favor of the School nurse.

    There isn't a single correct answer to this question and there are many ways to address this issue. Information gathering is always the way to begin and this is what you have done here. Keep us posted on how this develops and please, ask more questions when you need to.

    Good luck,

    R

    Good luck

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