School Health in Putnam County

This week we have spent a lot of time helping the health department’s school nurses do hearing, vision, and height/weight screenings at a local elementary school. Over the course of two days, we screened kindergarten, first, and third graders. Even though I have helped with several screenings in the Cleveland Public Schools, there is still so much to learn from the experience.

At the health department, there are 3 school nurses that cover all the schools in Putnam County. Although most schools have an LPN on site, much of the responsibility of the students’ health needs fall to these 3 nurses. Each year, they are responsible for screening each and every student in the county for vision, hearing, height, and weight, and they must follow up with the students who fail any part of the screening. The nurses receive help from various sources: women from the Lion’s Club, volunteer students from local high schools, and faculty at each school. So they were very appreciative that Maya and I could help out.

This week we focused on J.A. Long Elementary School which is located in Palatka and is only about a 5 minute drive from the health department. Overall, we screened 12 classes in about 6 hours. The nurses from the health department are able to bring quite a bit of screening equipment to the schools. They have two height rulers and scales, 2 audiometers, 4 Snellen Charts, and 4 “house, apple, umbrella” charts. With all the equipment and volunteers, we are able to screen many children in a relatively small amount of time.

And working with the kids in the school makes for an environment that is always changing. It can be so rewarding and fun. During her vision screening, one little first grade girl said to me in the most innocent voice, “I’m not a letter sayer.” It can take some dedication and technique to get the kids through the screening exams, but it is well worth the effort.