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
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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.