Columbus Dispatch/ February 20, 2011
Playground scrapes and upset stomachs are still part of the job.
But for health workers in the Columbus schools, there’s so much more: Nurses referred students more than 40,000 times last school year for medical, hearing, vision, dental or mental-health care. Some students were referred more than once or for multiple reasons.
Nurses had conferences or counseled students on personal hygiene more than 5,700 times; medical care nearly 20,000 times; and nutrition more than 5,400 times. They conducted 1,700 psychological evaluations and caught 1,400 cases of lice. Students were behind on shots – or, as is often the case with immigrant students, had never had any – 11,400 times.