Healthcare in our schools: Health Director speaks with Board of Education - The Daily Star-Journal

WARRENSBURG - “I always tell people that I buy two boxes of Band-Aids a year,” Warrensburg Health Services Director Karen Malsy said. “Of course, there are 8,000 Band-Aids in a box.”

In total, Warrensburg Health Services’ nine full-time staff members saw 123,330 students in the 2017-2018 school year.

Malsy, a registered nurse, spoke during the Warrensburg Board of Education meeting Jan. 15, praising the health services staff and its continued training. She also discussed the issues that come with a growing school district.

Health services staff currently consists of four registered nurses, three licensed practical nurses and two health aides.

Malsy said the district is looking to bring on another registered nurse so each school building can have a licensed nurse.

Malsy said that “(nurses) are putting their license on the line,” suggesting that the board consider raising the pay for substitute health staff who are liable when working for the district.

The Health services staff is all CPR, AED and Triage trained. Health services has trained 200 school district staff members in CPR and how to use an AED.

In her report presented to the board, Malsy stated that the growing complexity of services, an increase in severity of medical needs and a growing number of students with complex and chronic medical issues has caused a strain on the health services’ time and ability to treat students.

“A lot of people think school nursing is just skinned knees and ice packs,” Malsy said.

Malsy stated that each school has 60 to 70 instances of students needing to see a nurse per day. A large portion of those visits are health maintenance when a child comes in for daily medical needs, such as care for diabetes, seizures, asthma and severe allergies.

Health maintenance, daily medical needs and brief visits, when a student is sent back to class, make up 19 percent of all health services provided in the district.

The administering of medication makes up 15 percent; followed by parent contacts, 10 percent; first aid, 8 percent and specialized healthcare treatment, 8 percent.

Health services also oversees illness assessment, toileting incidents, health screening, individual health education, speaking with faculty and parents, staff wellness, follow up visits and accident incidents, each making up less than 5 percent of visits.

The district currently has several students with life-threatening allergies: 72 with food allergies, 20 with insect allergies and three with a latex allergy. Halsy said Epinephrine auto-injectors, EpiPens, are stored for these students in the case of an allergic reaction that requires immediate action to prevent loss of life.

She said diabetic students must visit the health room four times a day to measure their glucose levels.

Like other faculty and staff members, Halsy said health services attends conferences to exchange ideas and learn new methods.

Health services has a budget of about $15,000 for medical supplies, repair and maintenance, technology and attending conferences.

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