Years ago I was a phlebotomist. Yep. I was in nursing school back in 1994 and picked up a job at the local hospital for $4.50 per hour. I was green, as green as they come...my son would refer to me a “noob” if phlebotomist were video gamers. My job was to gather urines from the floors (having been collected
Year: 2019
Vision Screening – The School Nurse Guide
The school year is progressing along lickety split! We've been back to school for 94 days and have 197 left until summer break... including weekends and holidays...not that I'm counting or anything like that. Allergies...CHECK! Immunizations…CHECK! Vision screening... CHECK! What's next? Follow-ups for sure (with puberty class lingering). You can tell I am a school nurse for elementary school students.
Kawasaki Disease – The School Nurse Guide
I don’t care how long you do something — you never master it completely...and this nursing gig ain’t no different. Who has ever heard of Kawasaki Syndrome or Kawasaki Disease? Nah, me neither. But good thing you’re reading this article; now you’ve heard of it. This is a rare disease. Compared to the 3 million people who get the flu each
Posterior Urethral Valves (PUV) – The School Nurse Guide
Tubes everywhere! Remember...way back…(WAY WAY back for old nurses like me). Remember way back to your pre-nursing days and your A&P class? You know what I’m talking about. Those poor frogs…I’ll mention those poor critters at the end of this article. From the inner workings of our cells to the inner workings of each and every body system, we learned all
Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL) – Eight Points to Remember
Here we are. Safe-and-sound doing our day-to-days; work, home, dinner, sleep, and up the next morning to do it all over again. Work is okay. School is okay. And, life is okay. We worry about this and that. We contemplate debt, mortgages, jobs, friends, family and what’s for dinner. Our Facebook feed parallels a life that, for the most part,
Win $40 Amazon Gift Card
How Do You Store Your Medications? During the last part of the Summer, I had a few email messages and Facebook messages asking me to offer some ideas as to creative and safe medication storage. I have my way...that I have always done...and, well, I don't know any other way to offer that I feel would be "creative." Safe? Yes Siree
A Kid With A Rash Walks Into Your Office…
Right now you’re likely seeing...in your mind...that child who walked into your office last school year with a “what-is-that” kind of rash. You know—that itchy, burn-ey, bumpy, scaly, red rash that causes you to pause and wonder, “What the heck did this child get into?!” And summer time is rash season! “But summer’s over, Nurse Kevin.” You’re right and wrong. All
6 Tips for the School Nurse to get the most out of SUMMER!
Next year...it seems silly to be thinking about next school year here at the end of this school year. We have 3 days until we...well...until we don’t have to show up to the schoolhouses each morning. On the flip side, we have 70 days until we certified staff start a brand-new school year. But who’s counting, right? This article will be
Motivating Children to Wash Their Hands — Even When No One Is Watching
Hand washing...really?? Do we really need to talk about handwashing and the importance of handwashing and blah, blah, blah? I don’t know about your nursing school, but way back in 1996, the first return demonstration we ever had to perform as student nurses was handwashing. So, why is this school nurse talking to other awesome school nurses about handwashing? Y’all
Motivating The Unmotivated Type 1 Diabetic
How to Eat an Elephant? One bite at a time, right? How do you suffer from type 1 diabetes? One cell at a time. Unmanaged type 1 diabetes is like taking a penny nail and small tack hammer to a brick wall; it may take some time, but eventually, the wall will fall. According to the reports of Journal of American