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First response: sharing wisdom Council discusses teachers' role in medical interventions
Dec. 8, 2005 NYSUT Vice President Kathleen Donahue, right, meets Anne Goldman, who chairs NYSUT's Health Care Professionals Council. Kathleen Donahue recalled the vulnerable feeling of a ride on a field-trip bus with a student who had a severe food allergy. Because of the allergy, that student carried an EpiPen, an emergency syringe designed for self-injection of an epinephrine shot. The school nurse was with the group, but she was on the other bus. That meant that, in an emergency, a teacher would have been responsible for injecting the EpiPen. "There is a great deal of concern and apprehension when someone is asked to take on that responsibility," Donahue told New York State United Teachers' Health Care Professionals Council in a discussion of changing health care protocols in schools. Donahue, a longtime middle-level history teacher and president of the Hilton Central School Teachers Association in Monroe County , was elected a NYSUT vice president in April. She told the council about working with teachers who had been asked to change diapers, check a medically fragile student for signs of fainting and lift students out of wheelchairs. "There are a variety of things that would be helpful," Donahue said. "Much centers on education and cooperation. The critical issue is how to provide the safest possible environment for students and staff." Among ideas Donahue suggested to the council, whose members range from respiratory therapists to hospital and school nurses, at its November meeting: • In one case, a parent group put together emergency kits for each classroom, containing tissues, a plastic bag, latex gloves and bandages. • Putting in place procedures in each school building, such as a chain of command to follow in the event of an accident; and • Setting up support groups for teachers and School-Related Professionals working with students with special needs. Anne Goldman, a New York City nurse who chairs the council, urged members to consider health care-related resolutions for submission to NYSUT's Representative Assembly in May. "The onus is really on you to help champion resolutions for health care," said Goldman, a member of the United Federation of Teachers. Contract language Donahue stressed the helpfulness of contract language setting the stage for providing safe and healthy conditions for everyone in the school environment. The union vice president is well aware of the need for a school nurse in every building, a NYSUT legislative initiative. She reminded the committee of the need to get community support, citing the situation in Rochester earlier this year (where the county eliminated money for school nurses) in which community solidarity was critical. — Liza Frenette |
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