Thank You Nurse Jones!
Nurse Belinda Jones presenting health & welfare information and statistics about student health.
Ever spent some time with your school nurse? I know the experiences vary from one school to another (if a school even has a school nurse) but this blog post is just a simple appreciation for School Nurse Belinda Jones. School Nurses and Georgia came together to petition Governor Sonny Perdue's eradication of school nurses. While people look for test scores and AYP stats, it is rare to find the death statistics for a school district. With privacy issues and medical records, critical thinking is imperative for students today.
Even if you have the healthiest of children, does your child know how to provide or seek assistance if something happens in the classroom? Just as adults prepare for emergencies in a working environment, students have a need to know how to seek help when something happens. While great strides are improving technology, most schools still ban cell phones. Just like knowing where the emergency gas shut off is at a gas station, students need to know how to seek help and what to do in the mean time.
Believe me...Nurse Jones is not a school nurse for the $$$. Butler HS' Nurse Jones gets to spend time between an elementary and a high school and on emergency calls for other schools. Between trying to get students to return the medical cards and emergency contact information, she treats students w/allergies, asthma, accidents, pregnancies, diabetes, bruises, bloody noses, broken bones, MRSA, H1N1, and whatever other ailments she is notified of in the realm of a day and manages prescriptions and consent forms from parents.
We encouraged Nurse Jones to fill out a "Teacher Wish List" because she also takes care of our students. You have never seen such a smile when delivering some basic personal hygiene items, a few boxes of band aids, and plastic bags for ice packs. You would have thought we brought her the best gift in the world. With budgets being cut left and right, have you checked on your school nurse lately?
Mark your calendars May 12, 2010, National School Nurse Day.
