Psalms 61;2b

When my heart is overwhelmed, lead me to the rock that is higher than I

Monday, September 10, 2007

A day in the life of a school nurse

For sake of an update, I did get my job at Baileyton Elementary as the school nurse. I really like it and wanted to give you a blow by blow account…
8:00am…I am greeted at my office by an 8th grader who states she was combing her hair this morning and heard a pop in her neck. Basically, there is nothing I can do here, but give her advice…
8:05am…A little cute freckled faced, red haired 2nd grader steps into my office complaining of a stomach ache… She does this quite frequently and it almost seems as if she is wanting to smile. I am not sure if it is attention she is wanting, but I check her temperature and it is fine…after a little conversation, she goes back to class…for the record, I see her in an hour and she is playing and jumping around…
8:30am…A young man (8th grader) comes into my office and states he has got a splinter under his fingernail and wants me to help him get it out…we work on it and succeed without any blood…he does look at my daughter’s picture on my door and asked about her and states, wow, she is pretty…Does he want me to break his nose????
Nothing exciting happens in the next hour or so…I do make a trip to the office to copy an emergency card…I have to have a copy of all 370 students in my office… I also check immunization records on two new transfer students, putting a red stamp check mark on their permanent record to confirm I have checked it and they are up to date.
11:00am Meet Julia…she is a little2nd grade diabetic, who I am principally here for. She is on an insulin pump and I have to check her blood sugar before meals and then administer a bolus of insulin after meals. Today, she is high, so we go off to the bathroom to check ketones in her urine. None, so we are fine…Off to lunch she goes. I usually make my way to the cafeteria sometime while she is eating. I glance at her plate to see what she has and then either help the teacher on lunch duty roll around the garbage cans, or wipe off tables… I can’t stand just to sit and not do anything!!! After Julia finishes, we figure her carbs and she puts in the bolus amount into her pump. I then decide to eat. Today we had soup beans and cornbread…their beans are very good…it was that or fish sandwich or corn dog nuggets….They usually have a pretty good lunch and if they don’t they have a very good salad bar.
12:00noon I have 2 children that I administer daily medication to. Both of these meds are for ADD. I usually catch one child in gym and the other in the library.
12:30pm Most of the classes are out on the playground at some point between now and 3 pm. So I usually get several abrasions, cuts, and scratches…at the beginning of the year, we were getting several yellow jacket stings…but that seems to have passed.
1:00 I sit down and work some on a newsletter I am getting prepared to send out to parents. Just introducing myself to the parents, reminded them about medication policy, wrote a little article about the importance of breakfast, handwashing, and one about lice. In one particular week, I had to send 3 kids home with live bugs in their head!
1:30 pm It is time for the little diabetic girl to come up and get her afternoon snack bolus of insulin… she is very rambunctious and everyone in the library knows she has arrived when she does.
1:40pm I spend the rest of the day just piddling aroudn... not really doing much...I know several children have gotten sick with the stomach bug, so I take the sanitation wipes down with me and wipe off the banister on the steps, doorknobs, etc. I got the stomach bug, but that is a whole other story...
3:00 I get my things and go home to wait on Lukas getting off the bus. Not a bad day at all.