Patricia Contini, the only staff nurse in the 3,500-student Fillmore Unified School District, was at her office recently when she got a call about an injured student at a school eight miles away.
The elementary school student had run into a wall during recess and was complaining that her shoulder hurt.
For the Record
Los Angeles Times Friday November 30, 1990 Ventura County Edition Metro Part B Page 4 Column 2 Zones Desk 1 inches; 30 words Type of Material: Correction
School nurses--A caption in a Nov. 25 story about school nurses misidentified nurse Penny Wild. She is a retired school nurse who now contracts with the Santa Paula Elementary School District to do vision screening.
School officials called Contini, who advised that the girl's arms be put in slings while help was sought. But officials at the school didn't have the training or equipment to do it, she said.
"That would have been the more practical response, but because I wasn't there it wasn't done," Contini said.
The student, whom Contini declined to identify, walked out of the school holding her arms to support her injured shoulders. She was taken to a doctor by her mother and later diagnosed with two fractured shoulder blades.
Contini said the incident demonstrates the need for more school nurses. "That was one of several scenarios when I wished to heck I was at that school," she said.
Countywide, about 50 school nurses serve more than 110,000 students in 20 school districts, according to the Ventura County School Nurses Assn.
And the nurses' ranks are shrinking as public school funding dries up.
Like nurses in other school districts in the county, Contini says she cannot treat all of the students she is supposed to serve. But at least most districts have at least one nurse on staff. Two districts, Santa Paula Elementary and Ojai Unified, have none.
Instead, minor medical emergencies are handled by school secretaries or clerks, usually trained in basic first aid and cardiopulmonary resuscitation. Their duties also include notifying parents when their children are hurt.
Edward Kessler, Santa Paula's director of special services, said that the district has three CPR-trained health aides who serve seven schools and that each has at least six years of experience.
Andrew Smidt, superintendent of the Ojai Unified district, said the district has tried to provide emergency training to as many employees as possible.
"We feel we're really providing a good response in terms of emergencies," Smidt said. "It's working well, and one of the reasons it's working well is we have a lot of folks alert to any particular problems."
In districts with no nurses on staff, medical duties sometimes are performed by nurses on contract from the county school superintendent's office and paperwork is done by clerical aides.
