School Nurses Not Ready for Terror Attacks

Public School Nurses really have to have a lot more training
then they used to. This article is right. When I was a kid
(a BUNCH of years ago) tummy aches were the big problem.
Or a head cold. Now ... drug overdoses, teenage pregnancy,
and possible terrorist situations including school shootings
by kids with guns who have mental health problems. Someday
soon we will probably see college majors for School Nurse.
(if there are such specific majors out there, I'm not aware of them)
America could use this specified major now ... yikes!

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School Nurses Not Ready for Terror Attacks
By JOE MILICIA
The Associated Press
Monday, February 21, 2005

EXCERPT

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio - Long associated with treating playground
scrapes and tummy aches, school nurses nationwide say they
need to be more prepared for emergencies such as terrorist attacks.

Many are trying to work around tight school budgets and a lack
of respect as front-line responders to get the training needed to
prepare for the worst.

"Because of 9/11, so many things have changed," said Kathy
Steffey, a nurse at Lakeview High School in Cortland. "We have
to be prepared for almost anything."

Schools were recognized as potential terrorist targets long
before the seizure of a Russian school in September in which
330 hostages were killed.

Many developed disaster plans following the Columbine school
shootings in 1999 or the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. Yet, they
do not have the funding to train administrators and teachers on
how to carry out the plans, said Julie Underwood, general counsel
for the National School Boards Association.

Full Story:
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Thats not true for all schools, the nurse at my school could handle teen pregnancys, and the only main thing she would have to do in a shooting is call 911, I know theres the whole stop the bleeding thing to, but most people are capable of doing that.

When they say 'terrorist attacks' I think they are thinking
big scale - like what happened in Russia or in case of
NBC (Nuclear, Biological, Chemical) attack. The world is
a rougher place today then it was 30 or 40 years ago.
School nurses have to be 'up' on a lot more deadly
things now. What is scary is that a school shooting
isn't the worst thing that can happen to school kids
anymore. Sad and frightening!

I was thinking that if there was WMD attack, the nurse, and probably everyone else would be dead.

I have faith in the skills and knowledge of the nurse at my schoolthough.

My old school didn't even have a nurse. You could go down to the office, fake anything, and get picked up. But at my current school, when I fell in gym and broke my wrist, she just passed it off as a sprain. If a nurse can barly handle that, just imagine what would happen if everyone was irradiated.