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The School Nurse Credential Program
DEVELOPS CAREERS
BY DOUGLAS HOAGLAND
Liz Torres
LIZ TORRES, A NURSE IN THE FRESNO UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT, LISTENED CAREFULLY TO THE WORRIED MOTHER. HER 9-YEAR-OLD SON – A STUDENT AT TORRES’ SCHOOL – ALREADY HAD FREQUENT SEIZURES, AND NOW HE FACED ANOTHER SERIOUS PROBLEM: HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE.
“Tell me everything they told you at the hospital about the blood pres- sure,” Torres said to the mother. “I’ll go through all the information.” And she did, helping uncover a serious underlying condition that could have gone untreated. Like all school nurses, Torres works in the intersecting worlds of medicine, health and the education of children and adolescents. The work requires experience, judgment and, in California, a credential from an accredited university.
Torres earned hers from the School Nurse Services Credential Program at Fresno State, one of four programs in the state. The credential set her on the path to helping children like the 9-year-old boy.
Emergency room doctors said the boy suffered from white coat syn- drome: higher than normal blood pressure brought on by anxiety in medical settings. But Torres wanted to make sure it wasn’t something more serious. So three times a day, for five consecutive days, she took his blood pressure in the classroom. The boy was relaxed and com- fortable – no anxiety – but the pressure was high every time. Torres told the boy’s mother, who told doctors, who ordered an ultrasound that showed only one fully developed and functioning kidney. That
was causing the high blood pressure, which doctors started treating with medication. “I was like, ‘Wow!’ I caught something by being diligent,” Torres says.
Diligence is needed to earn the credential required of all school nurs- es. It’s similar to the one required of teachers – a year of specialized study in preparation for work in a school setting. Nurse credential students must be registered nurses and have a bachelor of science degree in nursing or a health-related field. Fresno State’s program in the Division of Continuing and Global Education doesn’t re-teach clinical practices but focuses on case management. Those are skills that school nurses need working alone on campuses. “In hospitals, nurses are usually part of a team. But a school nurse might be the only medical personnel on site,” says Patricia Gomes, co-coordinator of the Fresno State program.
The job carries big responsibilities. Only credentialed school nurses can oversee the health issues of special education students. In addi- tion, they screen younger children for vision and hearing problems plus oversee medical treatments that are necessary during school hours. For older students, nurses deal with mental health issues, sui- cide risk, opioids, domestic violence, pregnancy and sexually trans- mitted diseases. “Anything that hits your general population occurs in
6 California State University, FRESNO