I searched and read the Asthma and Allergy
Foundation's RESCUE website with
interest. EVERY school system should have a program like it. I also read The
National Association of School Nurses position brief which began,
"It is the position of the National Association
of School Nurses (NASN) that schools should stock Albuterol for emergency use
by the registered professional school nurse (hereinafter referred to as school
nurse) for students with symptoms of respiratory distress as specified in the
standing order or protocol. To optimize student health, safety and learning, a
school nurse should be present in every school, all day, every day to assure
appropriate and timely assessment and treatment."
If only the recommendation of the NASN was the rule
and not the exception. I suffered with Asthma as a child. Fortunately I outgrew
it, but I still remember the terror of waking up at night not being able to
catch my breath, banging on my bedroom wall, and being relieved to see my
mother rush in with my inhaler. I remember lying in a hospital bed and frantically kicking at the plastic oxygen tent
that seemed to be taking my breath away, as opposed to helping me breathe. I
remember not being able to run for long periods of time in gym class.
Several friends have asthma, and they keep their inhalers close. You hate to
see anyone suffering, particularly when there is an immediate remedy. What I heard this afternoon during
a phone call from a parent of an asthmatic child shocked and saddened me. What
seemed like a common sense situation became so unnecessarily complicated and cruelly prolonged. When
it comes to asthma and school children, adults can't afford to play games or politics.
So...
A child in your new class, who is known by adults at
the school to have asthma, suffers an attack in your classroom. You:
1. give him or her a pass, and send him or her alone
and wheezing to the office of the new school nurse.
So...
You're the new school nurse. A child suffering from
an asthma attack shows up at your office door. You:
1. Search for health services forms and interrogate the wheezing student who is trying to tell you who has his albuterol (since the student can't carry it on his or her person).
2. Phone the child's parent to scold them for not
updating the child's medical forms for the current school year, and continue to withhold
the Albuterol.
3. Learn that a staff member has been authorized by
the parent to administer the child's Albuterol but you don't ALLOW him or her
to do it either.
4. Phone the parent again and ask if he or she wants
you to call 911 or not, and if so, inform them that it will COST them (as if
the child isn't worth the cost of an ambulance ride to the ER).
5. Tell the parent he or she must leave his or her
place of employment, and drive over an hour to come to the school to administer
the Albuterol him or herself.
6. Cop an attitude when the frustrated parent
arrives, watch as the child successfully administers the medication, and then give the
parent forms (to completed by the child's pediatrician)-- so that the next time
the child shows up at your office door, you won't hesitate to help.
It's the third day of school. The child missed morning classes, and suffered not
because there was an earthquake, fire or flood; not because the Albuterol was
not there; not because no one knew how to administer it, not because some alien spacecraft disabled all of the phones, but because THE BOOK
says the child can't, the parent's authorized agent can't, and the nurse WON'T
administer medication unless forms have been updated.
Only thinking of the child and ignorant of procedures, I had two questions. "WHY DID NO ONE CALL
911???", AND "WHY WAS THE CHILD'S ALBUTEROL NOT IN THE CLASSROOM?????
The school year has only just begun. I'm an old
mother, and don't have a dog in this hunt, but what I heard today made me angry, and prompted me to ask a
third question: "WHAT'S WRONG WITH PEOPLE??? What would it have taken to
just give the poor child the medicine? Why insist that the parent leave their
place of employment to do what at least THREE people on the premises could have done
IMMEDIATELY?
I know. I know.
Regulations.
Liability.
Priorities.
Protocol.
Procedures.
The sad part is that the child won't be thinking about forms, or who did or didn't fill them out. The child will be wondering why the adults all around him or her are content to let him or her suffer.
So...Prince George's County Parents, if your child
takes medication, PLEASE make sure ALL consent and authorization forms are
updated no matter what arrangements you made LAST YEAR. I know forms can be a
pain, repetitive, seemingly unnecessary, and time consuming. You may think you've completed them already. You
may not even KNOW about them, but if your child has even the SLIGHTEST medical
issue, find out what your rights AND responsibilities are ASAP.
Today's
ridiculousness proved that people will allow your child to suffer, delay helping, and blame it
on your negligence. Stay on top of things this school year. Be an advocate. Make those
appointments and visit your child's school when you can.
You may have authorized the librarian
to administer your child's medication because last year there WAS no nurse at
your child's school. Maybe you're friends with the gym teacher, or the cafeteria
lady, or the Art teacher and don't mind them attending to your child, but
someone else, like the new school nurse, (who, unlike your child, wasn't there
last year when you gave a trusted adult employee written permission to
administer your child's meds), might have a huge problem with that.
Have common sense and compassion been replaced by
stiff-necked insensitivity and indifference? Children should NEVER suffer
because adults don't think, are fearful, or are just as thick as a brick!!! A
child could have died, and all over forms? Is there no database of returning
students that the nurse could have referred to? Was the form filled out in SY 2016-17 THAT obsolete? Or... how about the words of the parent, the parent's authorized agent, AND the child? Did that not matter either?
Parents, in a litigious climate, where people are
hesitant to do the right thing because something might actually go right, make
sure you have followed EVERY line in the school handbook where your child is concerned. Check
those book bags and backpacks for notices. Visit the school website. Return
forms on time, and completed in full. What happened LAST school year may not
apply THIS school year. What Miss So-and-So let slide LAST year may not fly THIS year. Don't assume there is wiggle room where policies are concerned.
Your child's life and health may
depend on it.
