As we enter the year 2000 and look to the right and the left with our mind's eye, we see the nurses office of yesterday and of today. As I write this I think back to my high school days and my high school nurse, Mrs. Epstein. I wonder if she would just shake her head in amazement. She covered a whole school district in Enfield, Connecticut. Seven schools with approximately 400 students in each school. She came to the high school once a month, unless we had an emergency. There were no immunizations to check on, remind about, send reports to the state about. There were no students with medical needs, no medications given in school, no medically needy students. No computers to enter information, no information to be entered. Students were not weighed or measured. No vision or hearing checks. I don't even remember having my head checked for those crawly creatures. Things certainly have changed.
The nurse of today does all of the above including specialized treatments such as blood sugars, catherizations, tympanometer readings. She is on the special education teams, deals with safety issues, is an integral part of the overall staff. The technology and availability of information has helped the nurse of today to expand her practice and accomplish things in schools previously only done in hospitals or lab settings. Students who once attended school at specialized facilities now attend schools in their own community with their neighbors and friends. We've come a long way and I for one think it's wonderful.
Our offices are very busy. We often see 50 plus students a day in addition to giving medications, doing treatments, attending meetings, checking heads, vision, hearing, heights and weights, and entering all information into a data base. The tasks are too numerous to mention. Our high school and middle school nurses have large practices bordering on 700-800 students in each school. The elementary schools are at about 400 each. Not much different in number from Mrs. Epstein's day but certainly the scope is greater and the practice challenging.
Visit your school nurse as she is in your child's building daily attending to student and staff needs. We welcome you, the parents of our students, members of our community. We think you would be amazed and pleased.
Written by Marcia Walenta on behalf
of the Oyster River School Nurses
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Last update on 22-Feb-00 at 10:20 PM.
http://www.orol.org/district/elections/2000/report/nurses.html
This page is edited by David K. Taylor. Please send questions or comments to editor@orol.org.