Nursing is like a four year old vision screening

cav5

As a school nurse, a lot of people (including many other nurses) ask me what I do all day and I never really know what to tell them. Because, you see, every minute of every day is very different.

You can go from putting on a Band-Aid to a life threatening allergic reaction in the space of mere minutes. You can go from a lice screening to treating a four year old diabetic who "can't feel his legs" in a matter of moments.

Then, there are the subtle things-the things all nurses who have a year or two of experience under their belt just know-the "more" that you can't put a name to. It is the feeling that a stomach ache isn't just a stomach ache; a bruise isn't just a bruise.

Then, one day, it hit me-school nursing is like a four year old vision screening. To the rest of the world the screener is just a plastic card with four mundane symbols of a heart, a circle, a house, and a square. However, to the eyes of a four year old, it is a never-ending supply of different items. To a four year old the circle could be anything form a hole, to a magnifying glass, to a round-a-bout to a ...well... a circle. A house could be a home, a dog house, a "mommy and daddy", or a shed.

This is my job. When a child comes into the health office with abdominal pain it could be the flu, constipation, a pregnancy, or appendicitis. However, it could also be a child's way of saying they have had no breakfast (for a day, a week, or a month). Or, that they found out, too late, that although they have finally won the battle with their mother to walk and stay home alone that they are now too scared to do so.

Ethically, all nursing specialties have their own unique challenges. To me, it is never leaving for lunch because there is not another nurse in the building. It is never taking a half day off for the same reason. It is knowing that I cannot, not for one second, forget to treat other people's children like they were my own.

But most of all, it is knowing that each child, each assessment, should be seen like a four year old sees that plastic card- because the day I start seeing just a circle, a square, a house, or a heart is the day that I will most certainly miss the real problem lurking underneath. Ethically, the day I see just those four mundane objects is the day I have to put that white plastic screener down.

Now, when people ask me what I do all day I smile and say I do a lot of different things but mostly, mostly I do four year old vision screenings.

Nursing is like a four year old vision screening

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