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About Keizertimes. (Salem, Or.) 1979-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 7, 2016)
OCTOBER 7, 2016, KEIZERTIMES, PAGE A3 KeizerCommunity Salem-Keizer added school nurses KEIZERTIMES.COM By DEREK WILEY Of the Keizertimes Nearly half of school nurse positions were cut in Oregon between 2010 and 2015, ac- cording to a report released in September by the Oregon School Employees Associa- tion (OSEA), Oregon School Nurses Association (OSNA), Oregon Nurses Association (ONA) and Upstream Public Health. But Eric Richards, director of student services, said that’s not the case in Salem-Keizer. “In our district, we have not had a trend in the number of nurse FTE (full-time em- ployees) going down or even staying steady, it’s going up,” Richards said. “We’ve prob- ably added two and a half to three positions over that time (2010-15). Richards added the district also hasn’t had a diffi cult time fi nding qualifi ed nurses. “We had a full time position come open this year and we had four outstanding fi nalists, any of whom we would have been very happy with and we have a new person starting this year,” he said. “We had a great applicant pool. We were able to fi ll that. We haven’t felt the affects of any nursing shortage in our district, whatsoever.” Lynn Lanham, a registered nurse in the Salem-Keizer school district for over 20 years, agreed with Richards. “We have more help than we use to,” she said. “I think people are recognizing the level of care that the students KEIZERTIMES/Derek Wiley Danielle Tschebotarjew, a registered nurse with the Salem-Keizer School District, assists Emma Bangs, a health assistant at Whiteaker Middle School. need has certainly gone up. We’re better off than many other school districts in Or- egon, for sure.” But with a staff of 19 reg- istered nurses for roughly 40,000 students, Salem-Keizer does still fall well short of the 1:750 ratio recommended by the state. “I don’t know very many if any places that meet that stan- dard,” Richards said. “It’s an optimal place that they’d like people to be but we certainly aren’t anywhere near that. Ev- ery discipline that works with kids in Oregon could proba- bly use a little more help with case loads. If you look at OTs (occupational therapists) and PTs (physical therapists) or nurses or counselors and you look at their state or national standards on how many there should be for the numbers of kids, I don’t think it’s uncom- mon for most school districts to be at that level. The level that we have in all our disci- plines, they do a very good job of making sure our kids are safe and get the services they are titled to under the law.” According to the report, the state legislature would need to make an investment of $58 million per year in order to meet the 1:750 ratio and $78 million to guarantee every school building had a nurse. The 18 registered nurses in Salem-Keizer are scattered over 65 schools. Danielle Tschebotar- jew splits her time between McNary High School and Claggett Creek and Whiteak- er middle schools. She worked at a hospital in Texas and as a school nurse in New Jersey before coming to Salem-Keiz- er in March. “I spend most of my time at McNary just because there’s more students and a little bit heavier case load,” Tsche- botarjew said. “Every day is completely different. You can try to start your day one way but it’s wherever the wind blows and takes you. It’s everything from seeing how the students are doing to fi nding out if the staff needs anything, contact- ing doctors because orders are being changed, just making sure my students are safe and getting their education, that’s how I spend my days.” At each school, Tschebotar- jew relies on a health assistant, who does most of the apply- ing bandaids and ice packs. “We work really close to- gether, Tschebotarjew said. “Between them and who- ever’s called into our help line and then whatever faxes are coming in, I have a check book that I do everyday to make sure I’m crossing my T’s and dotting my I’s. I feel that we’re being supported. Of course there’s nothing wrong with more help but we’re do- ing the best that we can and so far it seems like everyone is CONCEALED CARRY PERMIT CLASS 1PM AT KEIZER CIVIC CENTER TUESDAY, OCTOBER 11 2 PERMIT OPTIONS: OREGON ONLY ( $ 45) OREGON $ or MULTI-STATE ( 80) INCLUDED Cash or check payment will be made at the class. A driver license is all you need to bring. HONORED 3 WAYS TO SIGN UP! CALL: 360 -921-2071 WEB: FirearmTrainingNW.com EMAIL: FirearmTrainingNW@gmail.com DO NOT HONOR UT RES. ONLY Walk-Ins are Welcome Multi-state permit honored in Alaska but not Hawaii doing well.” All nurses take turns work- ing the help line, open from 7:30 a.m. to 3:50 p.m. ev- ery school day, to answer any questions a health assistant or teacher may have about pro- viding care. With the growing popula- tion of diabetic children, most of the nurses spend the lunch hour at schools injecting in- sulin. “If you came here during our lunch hour, it’s tumble- weeds, it’s a ghost town, be- cause we’re all at schools, going from one school to an- other, making sure all our dia- betics are getting their medi- cation before or after they eat,” Tschebotarjew said. Last week, Tschebotarjew showed the staff at McNary how to administer tube feed- ings. Through the Oregon Lions Club, every elementary stu- dent in Salem-Keizer gets an eye screening each school year. “We get very good feed- back from people who get services from our school nurs- es,” Richards said. “They do a terrifi c job. We don’t seem to have any problem attracting high quality registered nurses to come work on our health services team whenever we have openings. As the direc- tor of the department, it’s very rare that I get any calls of con- cern and on the contrary we hear a lot of positives about the help that our nurses give to our schools and the safety of our students.” CERT training offered The Keizer Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) is signing up new members with classes that be- gin later this month. The four-day free training will be held at the Keizer Fire District, 662 Chemawa Road N.E. from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Oct. 15-16 and Nov. 5-6. For more information or to register, go to bit.ly/2dBIjWj.
