School Nursing for Dummies

Okay, I am laughing....My office partner says I should write a book...I just love the excuses the kids come up to see the nurse. I have had a lot of "patients" this morning...which is unusual in itself...but the first 5 needed to hear the story about the boy who cried Wolf...but overall, you got to laugh...

• There was the little Hispanic boy who had broke both thumbs..., BTW, yesterday, it was only the left one, although he could make a fist without pain...today, both of them were broke...but nope, daddy didn't take him to the ER...there is no swelling or loss of movement, so I bet an xray is not needed till school is out...
  
• Then there's the older child who has pulled some muscles and wants to call home...but when I offer Tylenol or Ibuprofen, just the mention of these pain relief tabs obviously is all he needed,cause he suddenly got to feeling better...and said so...Wow! (try this technique more often...)
  
• The child who had chest pain the first hour and really needed to go home but don't call Mom, call Mamaw... and the next hour had vomiting, but she held it in so as not to get it on her desk...(now if she could train all the rest of the student body this trick...)
  
• oh, and the "thumb-broked" little boy came back up, this time with the complaint of "gonna puke". No temp, so I sent him back to class...(if you puke, you have to show an adult...and...if you pick a scab and cause bleeding you don't get a band-aid either)
  
• An older child is next with the complaint of coughing and sore throat...needs Temp checked, cause if he doesn't have a fever, then's he's in trouble...what do you devise from this?? Oh, well that would be obviously he is coughing exceedingly in class to make other classmates laugh...and teacher put a stop to that real quick...

All this happened before 10am...what a day...Finally did get a child with a small amount of blood and another with a fever...so my advice is..if you go into school nursing, these precious children will make you laugh...it's priceless!!!!

Then there is the funny things...the stories that possibly couldn't be true..but after listening to Weirdo Wednesday news, you have go to wonder...

• The child who's grandmother passed away yesterday who was 100 years old and lived in Egypt.
• The child who kept talking about his dead father...which I believed...but when asked how he died, he said, "either drugs or he was eaten by snakes"... WHAT?? ROFLOL
• the child who flies in an airplane everyday from China to her school here, just because it is a good school.
• the child who had a heart attack last night...

Smart as a 6th grader

So, we are sitting in the cafeteria and a child comes by and tells us of the boys making fun of the bulletin board...see if you are smart as a 6th grader...




you just gotta love those boys!!!!!!! LOL

Farm Day

One of the perks to being a school nurse is getting to go on field trips when the student you are in charge of goes...One of my students is in 3rd grade and has no physical disabilities...she just wears an insulin pump...so...at Farm Day, I get to wander around and take all kinds of pictures....so here goes...This was our first stop on a wagon ride. He was from UT and this plant sitting in front of him, can you guess what it is?? I had no idea...looks like monkey grass to me....LOL
This was the next stop...and here, we saw a cow in a holding chute and lots of equipment and long arm gloves...I was sure hoping we were gonna get to see an artificial insemination...LOL
but now that I look back, that probably WAS too young a subject for third graders...As you can see, we are looking at an ultrasound of a cow who is about 5 months into pregnancy. pretty cool, huh?
Oh if you didn't know the plant mentioned above, it is a wheat plant....

Back to school...

Well, I have had spring break...not much of a break to me...I worked that entire time...but since I don't get paid at the school, I had to do something...LOL I worked graveyard alot and lost alot of sleep...I am so tired today...I think it will take me months to get caught up!!!! At one point in the week, I had had 11 hours sleep in the last 75 hours...the 11 hours were not together either...4 here and 5 there and 2 later..UGH!!!! I love my sleep too much to be missing so much...
I am not sure where my work future is leading...I think there is a job that has a $4 increase in pay that will be coming open soon....want God's will...the thought keeps coming to me that sometimes, it don't take a rocket scientist to figure out what to do when God sends something your way...Iam just praying...nothing definite yet...

Superintendant

Ok..so he is supposed to come see me today about a student....The Mom has complained to him about me and told him ridiculous things...for you nurses, she told him that her daughter's A1C was 19...I mean, come on...she would be dead...and her sugar would at least have to be staying at at least 600- 700...it is almost funny on her part, cause she is an RN and she should know better...
Said I dressed up all the time like a clown and her daughter couldn't get to me...now, I know I am funny, and heck, maybe I even dress funny, but...trust me, you all were the first one's to know when I dressed up as Clifford...so wouldn't you all have hurt feelings if I was dressing like a clown and didn't show you all pictures??? LOL whatever!!!

A Morgan BLurB

I have to tell you a little thing about Morgan...and of course me being the mother who has always worried how I was portayed by the public, this was funny...
So I am at school doing height, weight, blood pressures for 5 grades for the State requirements to check overall health of children. I have to ask these kids to take off thier shoes to get an accurate height. It is pitiful at what I notice...kids with immensly dirty feet and socks...kids with no socks on at all with tennis shoes...kids with socks with holes in them...and kids with mismatched socks...I wonder where these parents are when these children are getting ready for school!!!But alot of these kids were old enough to know to wear clean sox or matched sox...so anyway, I guess I was just stunned...
Well, I didn't think anymore about it and went on throughout the day...that evening, we were going to visit a Dr. friend of mine who had recently had surgery...we walked in the foyer, (Me and the kids) and pulled off our shoes...well, LOW AND BEHOLD...my daughter....MORGAN...had on MISMATCHED sox!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Can you imagine my horror!!!!!!! so anyway, just go ahead and laugh,I won't judge again about sox, I promise!!!!!!

Knoxville Symphony Orchestra

I got the privilege of hearing the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra today...went to the Niswonger Performing Arts Center with our 3rd, 4th and 5th graders...It only lasted an hour and being that classical music isn't my favorite, I didn't want it to last longer...BUT I love to try everything once and I totally enjoyed the hour of music... We got to hear the different cell phone rings original pieces and where they come from...we also heard a Concerto Cell Phone Ring which was a combination of different cell phone rings all in the same piece of music...here is a link to the blog... http://knoxvillesymphony.blogspot.com/ if you would be interested in reading about them...kinda cool...It was very pristine to see them all dressed in black and some white and all the shiny instruments with the stage lights bouncing off them...wanted to get up there with my camera for some closeups to capture the mood...

Then..., I got asked to go to 4-H camp next week for 3 days and even take my kids...so i am considering doing that...If they can find a replacement for me here at school while I am away...so Ia m not sure...will just have to see how plans turn out...I LOVE SCHOOL...:)

Giraffes...

There is this 3rd grade teacher here at school and she was up teaching math at the board ...subtracting, borrowing, checking your answer, etc...when a student(boy) raised his hand...the teacher went ahead and called on him, assuming he didn't understand a particular step in subtraction...She called on him and he said "Reckon how long it takes a giraffe to vomit??"

kid quote...

I had a 1st grader come into my office..now it is not unusual for him to come in my office complaining and he usually does it about 2-3 times a week...but he is the cutest, little boy, I always humor him...he is very mischievous and gets into trouble frequently, but I just love him....so today, in he walks...
"Ms. Sherry...when I came in from outside, it hurt right here" (pointing to jaw)
"Oh no, sweetie, what happened" (I didn't see anything wrong...)
"Well, it feels like my brain is falling apart right here" (once again pointing to jaw)
Of course I take a penlight and look inside his mouth to make sure his brain wasn't falling out...
and it wasn't, sure enough...

But it was all I could do to keep a straight face...

2nd Grade Field Trip...

I went on a field trip with the second grade last week, cause my little diabetic girl has to have someone with her all the time...we went to the Doak Museum. We ended up having a great time...First, they did marble painting...cool technique! In this the two pictures below, they threw out 100 marbles between the fence line and she let them go marble hunting...Of course, you can see that some of the boys got kinda rowdy trying to get the most marbles!


By the way, I am posting these pictures, cause no child's face is visible to identify, so therefore, it isn't against any rules, right??!
Okay, they also got to make marbles out of clay...well, this little guy decides to scuplture his own "thing" while the instructor was talking...we were cracking up, the parents and teachers, cause, bless his heart, he had no idea!!! Really, he had no idea! It was funny!

Another Funny...

I remember going to a Kindergarten class to teach about germs, safety, etc. One little boy raised his hand and said..." When you die, yor brains fall out" !
It was just too cute not to share...whatever gave the child this idea...?

Today..

I got to teach the 2nd Grade from a new program called Little D's Nutrition Expedition.
It was so fun...I got to read a story to them and they got to act it out...I will actually be teaching from this for the rest of the year. I am excited about it!
Tom is sick and hateful. :D He and I had the afternoon to ourselves as the children went with Andrea and Bobby. We ate at Outback and then went to the motel to rest. The revival broke and with him being sick, he needed the rest.
Then the kids were worn tee-totally out last night, so I put them straight to bed.
I often wonder what goes on in their minds...One night when I put Lukas to bed, he hugged me tight and said "Mom, don't ever die' I said, Honey, Mommy isn't going to die and if I do, God will help you thru it...
Several people commented on how pretty Morgan looked today at church. She is growing up so much...will post a recent picture of her soon. Oh my gosh, and she aCTS just like me!!!! She is a little flirt...not that I am or anything...she is outspoken...likes to pick on people...oh my gosh, she is so much like me...!!!!! I DO have problems!!!

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.

IV's and stuff...

IV and stuff...
Current mood: calm 

Okay, so the other day at work, I needed to start an IV on a big tall black man...he had brought his brother to the appointment with him...now, the paitent was really sick and I guessed brother was just coming to be of support, but I learned it was for another reason...he had a medical background...although I thought it was a pharmacist...

Well, I am not that great at starting IV's, cause I only start one per month at the most and so that means I have only started about 8 IV's in the past 8 years...so here I am searching and feeling over the arm with the tourniquet in place and finally find where I want to stick...brother is sitting in chair...I am okay...I stick patient, no blood return...keep on digging....nothing...feel like I am in the vien 2 or 3 times...Brother gets up and comes over to bed...starts feeling other arm as he can see I am having problems..I am still okay, cause I think, well, a pharmacist doesn't have as much experience as I do...still no luck, so I pull the needle out to try again...Dr. comes in room...says to brother..."well, I guess you could start the IV with your eyes closed..." I look up..."why" I say...well,I am an RN in a burn unit...now, people with no medical background, let me tell you what burn victims do...they loose fluid, so they are literally the hardest to start an IV on, cause they are barely circulating fluid in blood....my jaw drops....

Well, after MD leaves room, I decided to let volunteer brother...patient agrees this is okay..so brother gloves up, gets needle and sticks...and guess what.? NO blood return...AND,,,no luck getting any!!!! he tried digging around, but nothing!!! he had to pull out too...well, of course I am feeling alot better by now, not thinking things could get worse....

I do go ahead with the next stick and start the IV...I get it in the bend of his arm, where most people have huge viens...but you don't want to start an IV there normally, cause then they can't bend thier arm without occluding IV...but as I ws standing up from starting it..the brother says...."WELL, I GIVE YOU AN A+." I just look at him...and he continues" CAUSE I AM AN INSTRUCTOR AND I HAVE TO TRAIN STUDENTS AND WATCH STUDENTS START IV'S ALL THE TIME..."

Sherry
http://myspace.com/sherryonthecrazyside