Ronda Lickteig
R-T News Writer
Remember the school nurse of days gone by? They were there to take your temperature or hold the bucket if you were sick and to call your mom to come get you. Most schools didn’t even have a full-time nurse and sick kids waited alone on a cot until their parent could come get them. Things have changed, according to former Rissler Elementary School nurse Joy Farris.
Joy retired from the Trenton R-9 School District in 2015 after serving 18 years as a school nurse. At one point in her career, she served all three district buildings, rotating her time to be sure she was at the right place at the time when a student needed catheterization or medication. Now, one nurse serves Rissler and one serves the Trenton Middle School/Trenton High School building, which is good since the scope of the job has changed.
“I would say the major change we’ve had over the years has been the food allergies,” Joy said recently. “When I first started, if a kid hadn’t had breakfast and was hungry, we gave them peanut butter and crackers. Now you can’t even have peanut butter in the office.”
Peanut allergies have become more common, but students are also allergic to red dye, bee stings and many other substances and objects. Getting information on those allergies is sometimes difficult, she said.
“It’s hard sometimes to get parents pinned down on exactly what type of allergies their kids have. We need to know what happens. What’s the reaction and what do we look for?”
In the past, the school didn’t have epi (epinephrine) pins, but now while parents often send them to school, the school also keeps a stock of them in the case of an allergic reaction.
All of these allergies make it difficult to keep everyone safe.
“We have to make it a safe environment for them and that includes the lunchroom. We have to discuss safe treats and have to go over the list of ingredients because companies can change something that goes into it. It happens all the time. I worked a lot with the cafeteria and you just have to trust people to read the labels.”
There are also students with diabetes, another illness that requires careful attention to what a student eats. Younger children, in particular, have to be watched closely, while the older kids learn as time goes on.
“With the younger kids we have to worry so much because they can’t always watch out for themselves. It’s easier at the high school because they know what they can and can’t eat.”
While students have been taking medication at school for many years now, Joy said she is actually seeing a decrease in those students coming to her because their medications for issues such as attention deficit disorder are now extended release. The student takes the pill before school and it lasts all day.
One of the changes she saw over the years is one that society as a whole is seeing – kids who are facing adult problems from a young age.
“Seeing kids who are being abused or neglected-that part was heartbreaking. We’re seeing multiple generations living together because of family issues or because a parent is incarcerated. There are more grandparents taking care of their grandchildren and sometimes we would see a situation where the grandparent just couldn’t do it.”
Seeing those situations tugged on her heartstrings and some of them haunt her even today. It shows that her job was more than just a paycheck to her – something that didn’t change over the course of her career.
“Not all kids have the emotional support they need,” she said. “I would have loved to have taken some of those kids home with me.”
Tyann Cox is the current Rissler nurse, while Stacy McCullough is the TMS/THS nurse.
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