A dose of reality: more sick kids, fewer school nurses | EdNews Parent

A dose of reality: more sick kids, fewer school nurses | EdNews Parent

A dose of reality: more sick kids, fewer school nurses

by Rebecca Jones

Kelly Oswald regularly helps the diabetic students at her school draw blood and determine whether their glucose levels are within normal range or whether further steps must be taken to stabilize them.

And in the course of her school week, she knows she may be called on to administer medication to a child having a seizure or determine when it’s too cold outside for an asthmatic child to go out for recess.

That’s in addition to dispensing the usual daily round of prescription medications that a school full of children in varying degrees of ill health bring with them from home.

Oswald is not a nurse. She’s the school secretary at the 100-student Kit Carson School in the town of Kit