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Schools

With one school or five, days are a blur

Factors like the number of special-needs students dictate how much time a nurse spends at a school. But a busy day is a given.

By THERESA BLACKWELL
Published May 15, 2005

He had been in earlier with a stomachache, and now second-grader Zachary Engeloff is at the clinic door again. A diabetic, he says he feels weak.

"I'm starving," he says.

"We've got to get some juice into him," Garrison-Jones Elementary School registered nurse Colleen Glass says.

While someone hustles off to the cafeteria, Glass commandeers some Gatorade and finds a cereal bar. A break in Zach's routine - an Easter egg hunt, along with some walking - has caused his blood sugar to drop on this day in late March. Later, as his blood sugar starts to rise, Zach turns to a boy in the next bed with a paper towel on his head.

"What's the matter with you?" Zach says, and later, "Feel a little better, dude?"

Soon Glass takes Zach to the cafeteria and watches to make sure he eats his sandwich. Then she rubs his head, pats his back and slowly walks away.

Leaving can be difficult for Glass, who forms strong ties with her students, but she has to leave a lot. Her work as a Pinellas County school nurse sends her to five schools a week.

On Mondays, she goes to Garrison-Jones in Dunedin.

On Tuesdays, it's Sunset Hills Elementary in Tarpon Springs.

Wednesdays take her to Kennedy Middle School in Clearwater.

Thursdays, she goes to Oldsmar Elementary.

And on Fridays, she's at Palm Harbor University High School.

She says she is thrilled to have found her niche in nursing, but would like to clone herself. In all, she is responsible for 5,047 students.

This day, Glass sees 19 students, many returning several times. She cares for a prekindergartener with an insect bite on a swollen leg, a girl who feels sick, a child with a scraped knee and two kids who collided in gym class. She is paged by Kennedy Middle School, where she cares for three diabetic students. Glass has so many children with diabetes that she has started a support group for them.

"Diabetes is really complicated emotionally," Glass says. "And they get to a point where they just want to forget that they have it."

For diabetic students, Garrison-Jones has hired a nonmedical teacher's assistant to help students check and control their blood sugar levels. Glass spends much of her day training office clerks and teacher's assistants to give medications, use health care plans with medical instructions for each child, and document visits.

"It really is a partnership," says Garrison-Jones principal Marilyn Lusher. "It takes all of us working together to make it happen."

While Garrison-Jones sees a nurse once a week, Cross Bayou Elementary School in Pinellas Park has one every day. Principal Marcia Stone said they tried to get a full-time registered nurse for years. Then two students with feeding tubes enrolled at the school, and registered nurse Marie Amato of St. Petersburg was assigned there five days a week.

On a Wednesday morning in mid March, Amato starts her day checking for head lice. Counting four eggs on a patch of one girl's scalp, she calls the student's father to come clean the girl's hair so she can return to class.

Students stream in for medications, display their injuries or complain of sore throats. A small girl with wavy blond hair and a colorful dress enters. Alexis Banks, 4, is in the school's prekindergarten program for the deaf and hard of hearing. She also needs feeding and breathing tubes. Amato listens to her heart and sends her to class.

The morning rushes by in a blur of mosquito bites, dizzy spells, toothaches and colds. One boy says his brother pushed him against a counter and now it hurts to walk. Another coughed through gym but didn't tell his coach he has asthma and an inhaler at the clinic. Amato sends memos to the boy's teachers and reminds him to speak up for himself.

"Don't be frightened," she says. "It's just part of growing up and taking care of yourself."

Still another boy stops in and tells Amato he has been taking good care of his teeth - brushed them twice that morning. He leaves with her praise.

"A little love, a little concern for 30 seconds," says Amato, 58, who is in her seventh year as a Pinellas school nurse. "Make them feel special in that little way."

Children keep coming. She walks a boy with diabetes around the school yard to lower his blood sugar, checks on Alexis in her classroom and feeds her around noon. When she returns, seven boys wait for her in the clinic. As the day nears its end, Amato has seen 28 students and looks out at the office staff.

"These guys are the ones doing all this at other schools," she says. "Can you imagine?"

[Last modified May 15, 2005, 01:21:24]