“Nurse Kevin, I am so sick...I think I am having ‘ana-pol-axis.’ I am very allergic to killer bees...and marinara sauce. Can I have a mint?” Little Jenny has some very concerning “ailments.” She has managed to articulate her reason for coming to see the nurse, clearly...and without pausing...and while suffering from a very subjective case of anaphylaxis, hypoglycemia, and, more importantly,
Blog
Day-to-day ramblings of a school nurse.
School Nurse’s Guide Back to School
School Nurse's Guide to Back to School Today is day one of the new school year. Today, after getting to school and getting hugs from some of my favorite people, I mosied back to my office to start digging out of the pile that usually accumulates after a summer of school cleaning and office organization. Summer is over...I am sad...but also
Getting “Much” of the Children
I’ve been nursing for almost 20 years and have never been able to find a specialty of nursing that I love until I showed up as a school nurse. Christmas after Christmas, holiday after holiday, weekends, evenings, nights, doubles, split shifts, on-call shifts, and extra shifts, I have worked them all. And now here I am...Nurse Kevin...school nurse for 1100
Cause I Ain’t Got a Pencil
A Short Tale of How I Have Begun to Understand the Children About this time during my first year as a school nurse, I had just finished working 78 days in a row without a day off. I thought being a school nurse would be great! But you know the old saying, “If it’s so great, why isn’t everyone doing it?”
We’re Going to Be Friends
I love the movie Napoleon Dynamite (I’m from Idaho…all 1.68 million of us like it). It just makes me feel excited about going back to school. After the opening credits, Napoleon quietly awaits the school bus on his first day of school. After getting on the school bus another kid asks, “What are you going to do today, Napoleon?” Napoleon shoots
The Richest School Nurse in the Whole-Wide World
My second year of being a school nurse is coming to an end. It’s field day at our elementary school and after today, we only have 4 more school days left. Like last year, I kinda don’t want the year to end. There’s the day-to-day routine that is ironically never “routine.” My ice chest is packed with ice packs, my
21 Reasons NOT to Wear Shoes in the House!
Somewhere in the world there is someone using the bathroom and will leave without washing their hands. They will do their “business,” perform what ever cleaning they do (or don’t do) and walk right out of the bathroom into the big-wide-world touching stuff that you will eventually touch. Likewise, they will likely step in place with their shoes that you
School Nurse Work Is Fun
I feel guilty! My computer monitor is turned slightly inward to the previously perpendicular, and visible position to the passers by in the office hallway. My attempts at being less-than-conspicuous as I plug pictures of talking apricots and dinosaur eggs into my PowerPoint presentation feels a little sheepish. After a bit of cross-eyed computer work, I get up to get
Peppermints Makes The Kids Smarter and Calmer
Mints. Just about every child that comes into my office gets a peppermint before leaving. I think that passing along a bit of sweetness helps the day go by better. They see it as a treat; I see it as a little bit of extra health care that will help them in so many different ways. Can peppermint make you smarter?