School Nurse

I read with dismay the article "Budget ax threatens school nurses" (Monday). How unfortunate that State Sen. Jeffrey Piccola and Jennifer Hoover-Vogel of the Pennsylvania Association of School Business Officials were not better informed about the role of the certified school nurse before advocating a policy that would allow school districts to hire uncertified nurses. School nursing is a community health specialty. As pointed out by experts quoted in the article, it is ridiculous to suggest that just any nurse can with minimal training assume the responsibilities of a school nurse.

Mary Ann Sewell doesn't just dispense aspirin and Band-Aids. Sewell, the school nurse at Bok High in South Philadelphia, tends to 187 asthmatic teenagers. She treats insulin-dependent diabetics, kids with cystic fibrosis, sickle-cell anemia, and seizure disorders. As part of its latest round of budget cuts, the Philadelphia School District will lay off 141 employees, including 47 nurses, effective Saturday. Sewell and about 50 others gathered at district headquarters Wednesday to protest.

Desiree Ramos was watching a science film in her ninth-grade homeroom at New Foundations Charter School when she began to feel shaky - a sign she knew meant low blood sugar. Ramos, a type 1 diabetic since age 5, whispered an explanation to her teacher and headed to the nurse's office. She deftly pricked her finger and watched as a test strip swallowed the tiny bead of blood. Within seconds, her glucose meter registered 42 (normal blood glucose is between 80 and 180). "I was a little scared," she recalls.

Frances Loretta Breedon Litz, 79, of Bristol Township, who had been a registered nurse for the Army and the local school district, died Sunday at the North Florida Regional Medical Center in Gainesville. She had been visiting a daughter in Florida. Mrs. Litz retired after 23 years with the Bristol Township School District. During World War II, she served as a second lieutenant with a Mobile Army Surgical Hospital (MASH) unit in England and France. She was a member of the Bucks County Nurses Association and the Bristol Township Education Association.

A school nurse who suspected in May something was physically wrong with 10-year-old Charleeni Ferreira asked her parents for her medical records and told them to take the girl to a doctor, a law enforcement official said yesterday. The involvement of the nurse indicates that officials suspected months ago something was wrong with Charleeni, a Philadelphia fifth grader who died Wednesday after suffering what authorities described as horrific and systematic abuse. Her parents have been charged with murder and the investigation continues.

Services were held Tuesday for Beth A. Schwartz Leeds of North Wales, a Cheltenham School District nurse for the last 15 years. She died of cancer June 25 at Chestnut Hill Hospital. She was 47. A co-worker said Mrs. Leeds was known for her "TLC" - tender loving care - with students who sought her care as a school nurse at Wyncote and Glenside Elementary Schools and Cheltenham High School. She also was an accomplished drum major with the Delmar District Pipe Band of Bowie, Md. It was through this avocation that she met her husband, Robert W. Leeds, at a Thanksgiving Day dinner in 1978.

A school nurse who stole Ritalin and other prescription medication from students and took the pills herself has pleaded guilty to child endangerment, drug and theft charges and will spend the next three years on probation. Patricia D. D'Abruzzo, 40, of Zieglerville, has surrendered her nursing license and joined a Narcotics Anonymous program, said Montgomery County Assistant District Attorney Robert Gibson. D'Abruzzo, who entered the plea last week, was a nurse at Silver Springs-Martin Luther King School in Plymouth and the Silver Springs residential treatment facility for emotionally and sexually abused children in the Germantown section of Philadelphia.

Confronted with petitions signed by more than 300 people, the Avon Grove school board has delayed plans to hire a new full-time school nurse from outside the district. Instead, the petitioners want the district to hire Roseann Dundon, a resident of Franklin Township in the district, to be nurse at Kemblesville Elementary School. Parents from Kemblesville Elementary went to Tuesday night's board meeting to voice their opposition to the administration's recommendation to hire a school nurse from West Chester over Dundon, who has been a substitute nurse in the district for the last four years.

  The case gained international attention and became a rallying point for anti-bullying advocates. But investigators have found no evidence that a school-yard fight had anything to do with the death of sixth grader Bailey O'Neill, the Delaware County district attorney said Monday. The death was the result of epileptic seizures, District Attorney Jack Whelan said. He said his office did plan to file juvenile-level simple-assault charges. Whelan said an autopsy by Edwin Lieberman of the Philadelphia Medical Examiner's Office revealed "no physical finding of trauma or evidence that trauma played a role" in the boy's death on March 3 at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.

Runny noses and scraped knees aren't the only reasons students drop by the school nurse's office these days. Some come in complaining of rashes, urinary tract infections, or ear and throat aches. In short, they come with problems that should be handled by a physician. The reasons they choose the school nurse over a doctor are many: lack of insurance, lack of a family physician, or lack of a parent who believes the problem warrants a doctor's visit. And besides, it's just a lot easier to stop by the nurse's office between math class and lunch than to arrange an appointment with a doctor.