School nurses

I'm quite amazed at some of the recollections... or stories I read about school nurses.

In the public schools that I attended in France, only the largest ones had a nurse. If you injured yourself, or if you had a stomach ache or other problem, you could see her. She would provide first aid, e.g. for a black eye.

For stomach ache, I was shown to a bed and told to rest; I'm not even sure whether I got some painkillers (delivering medicine is normally done only by pharmacists and prescribing medicine only by physicians, and a nurse is neither, so it may simply have been illegal to provide acetaminophen/paracetamol...).

Ah, in theory, if you had to take medicine while in school, you had to leave it to the nurse and go pick it at appropriate times. I've never heard of anybody abiding by that rule, except perhaps the very youngest kids.

I've never heard of anybody getting anything more done. School physicals were done by a physician (perhaps the one in elementary school was helped by a nurse), and you were not even forced to use the physician proposed by the school - I think I did mine for highschool at my regular GP.

School nurses still exist here in the UK but their roles are very different now . Each school is allocated a nurse but they are based off site.

Children get an eye , hearing test , height and weight check when starting in reception class aged 4 or 5 .

At aged 11 when they leave for secondary school they get another height and weight check .

Girls as a class group get " the talk " in year 6 aged 10 or 11 about periods . They also watch a video on reproduction and birth.

Parents can opt out of this . I was invited to go along with the other mums to both my girls groups at the times.

Eldest was ok as she had started her periods at 9 so she was confident enough and knew all about babies etc to watch without me . So I didn't go.

Youngest is blind and school wanted me there so I could explain it to her as they went along . She too knew all about reproduction etc but was happy for me to go . There were more mums there than I thought there would be.

Dad's and sons had a session with a male teacher where they discussed masturbation, erections etc.

In secondary school the only time we see the school nurse is to update the care plans at the start of each school year in September . Other than that apart from routine vaccines until age 16 we have no contact with them.

Gone are the days of the nit nurse visits .

I think it largely depends on the school and era, though I suspect a lot of the more elaborate recollections may be more fantasy than reality (and I've have fantasies about it to be sure). In my experience in the US, schools have an on-site nurse, and they are primarily there to help with injuries and sick kids. Medications are left with them for dispensing, and I've seen that for young kids and bigger kids (and that was when I was growing up...I would think it has become more strict nowadays with liability and more kids taking medications for things). Our school nurses did periodic vision, hearing, headlice, and scoliosis checks - probably once a year for each.

School nurses also get involved in communications about communicable diseases - alerting parents directly or through teachers that they may have been exposed to something going around (strep, lice, etc.).

My high school did offer on-site sports physicals, but that was more of an independent arrangement by some parents who were doctors. I never took advantage of that.

I've heard of immunizations being done at school before my time, but it's not something that I experienced or have heard about.

Overall my main recollections of the nurse's office were going there if I was sick (oral temp and lying down if needed, or put somewhere with a bucket if I was vomiting) and dropping off physical exam forms.

MplsPlayDr: In the schools that had nurses officially she was in charge of dispensing drugs (you were supposed to bring the drug and the prescription to her).

In practice... I mean, do you imagine that any kid with a sore throat would go to the nurse to bring her the prescription-free throat tablets? Any 15-year-old girl with period pains would bring acetaminophen to the nurse just to be able to swallow it?

I do not recall ever bringing medicine to the nurse, even though that was the rule and I suppose I occasionally had to take medicine at lunch when I was 13-18 years old.

I believe there are some states in the U.S. that require more than just screenings. Pennsylvania is one such state. They require full physical exams upon initial entry into the school (K or 1st), then also in 6th and 11th grade.

http://www.portal.state.pa.us/portal/server.pt/community/schools/14130/mandated_school_health_program_(exams_screens)

From what I've heard, the parents have the option of either having the physical exam done by their own private doctor, or if not, the school nurse arranges for it to be done at the school. I've often wondered how much of a part the school nurse plays in these exams. After all they are a nurse, so while they are likely not conducting these physicals, they might be in the room assisting the doctor who is brought in to do them.

EDIT: for some reason the link that I've included isn't taking you to the right page. I think it's dropping the trailing right paren ")" in the URL.

My school nurses just did regular screening tests like vision and hearing. I also remember having scoliosis screening at school, but there was no undressing for that.

Things are certainly different now, but when I was in grade school the nurse would collect certain basic information on each student every year. Height, weight, eye sight. In certain grades specific screening for hearing were done. Some school wide screenings like for TB were done by public health nurses from outside the school. Day to day they made sure students who needed medications got them and took care of the usual cuts and scrapes. If you felt sick, she would take your temperature and if you had fever she would call your parents to take you home.

Now days we do eye test, hearing test, height, weight test, BMI's. Make sure vaccinations are up to date. If a parent doesn't believe in it then you have to have them get it cleared through channels and have it in the child's record. If they are sick you decide if they should stay or go home. Then call the parents. Take care of emergencies. Be at the school when children are at the school. Even for after hours events. There is a lot more than just this. Be the Secret Santa for the children that don't have much. The last part is not in the job description. I just do it.

Tabitha, God Bless you for what you do with poor kids.

Our school nurse did screenings for hearing and eyes. She was also there when they brought a dentist to school who did some basic exam which was really just grading the quality of our mouths. Most of the time we just got told to floss. I went to high school in the era when I could still bring Tylenol or Midol to school with me without having to check it with the nurse.

In the UK in the 50's we didn't have a nurse in the school, I moved into the upper school aged 11 in the 60's which did have a nurse but she was based in the 'forbidden' girls half and I never saw her or remember any other boy saying they had.

However we did have medicals, which I've written about elsewhere, but unlike the many more modern accounts recorded here these weren't done by a doctor but by two senior nurses. Usual checks plus the 'turn your head and cough' and I suppose they recorded whether or not your testicles had dropped.

I agree Tabitha your doing a great job !!! Also it seems many things have changed in time some good I guess

. . . . and I suppose they recorded whether or not your testicles had dropped.

That usually happens by 6-9 MONTHS of age if not descended at birth. If not descended by 12 months, surgery is done to correct this. Because testicular cancer is a frequency sequela with undescended testicles.

Susie: Believe it or not, I had this (both testicles descended) checked in a examination for entering the military, at adult age.

I also think this is the check that they did when, in elementary school, during a physical, the doctor asked me to pull down my briefs.

So, see, it seems that some males slip by...

One of my ageplay fantasies is to examine a teen girl going in for her first gyno exam.

JimmyJohnson, the physical form has a Genitourinary box on it

JimmyJohnson: I do not see anything on that page about what is conducted in the exams...

JimmyJohnson: I do not see anything on that page about what is conducted in the exams...

As I said in my original post, the URL is getting mangled somehow.

Here's a few of the links from the page I referenced:

http://www.portal.state.pa.us/portal/server.pt?open=18&objID=1367736&mode=2

http://www.portal.state.pa.us/portal/server.pt?open=18&objID=1367734&mode=2

Love reading these posts, unfortunately went to a small private school and we did not have a school nurse.