School Nurse

Most days I am a teacher.  Some days I act as "assistant principle", and on days like today, I am the school nurse.  I don't know why, but today was just one of those days in which lots of kids had small medical problems.

First thing in the morning, I noticed that Colo (a pre-k student) came to school with his head freshly shaved, revealing several pus sores on this head.  So, I took care of him and at the end of the day I sent him home with a small tube of Neosporin.  No big deal, just something to keep an eye on.  Throughout the course of the day, I had three students come to me with upset stomach, one with fever, and two needing cough medicine.  If they had all been from the same class, I would wonder if they were faking, but they were all from different grades.

At the end of the day, a teacher brought a crying 2nd grade boy to my classroom.  "Can you take care of him, Miss Katie?  His finger is hurt."  Apparently while playing soccer on the church grounds, he fell and got his finger stepped on.  His knuckle was pretty swollen and he was unable to bend his finger.  He began crying at the slightest touch.  So, Mr. Nickson drove him home and his parents agreed that he should go to the clinic and get checked.  At 3 o'clock, I thought my nursing duties were finally over for the day, but I was wrong.  Two boys came to me when school let out and asked me to look at their toes.  Both boys had toes with the skin ripped off and one also had athlete's foot.  Because the boys had been wearing sneakers to school every day, the toes were not healing.  I had them soak their feet and then I cleaned them up and sent them home with flip flops that they are supposed to wear until their toes scab over.

None of the problems (aside from the finger) were severe, just basic first aid.  I do often wish that was a nurse, or that I had some type of medical training.  Thankfully, I have a close friend who IS a nurse so I can text message her throughout the day when medical questions arise.  I don't mind doing what needs done.  It makes life more interesting.  That is one thing that I love about Haiti: basically, if you are there when something needs done, that makes you qualified to do it.  

I'm thankful that I have Miss Kattiana as an assistant in my class so that she can cover for me when I have to go off and play "nurse" for a few minutes.