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In a 10-minute span one Wednesday morning, school nurse Janice Telsrow sawfour students who needed medication dispensed to them, one who was returningclothes he had borrowed the day before and a sixth child who apparently hadinjured her knee. Telsrow, who works at Wilson Elementary School in Davenport,is an example of someone who does a lot more in their job than other peoplemight think. Her typical day in the Quad-Cities is similar to a scene that isrepeated in schools across the state.

“Many people believe all we do is take care of cuts and scrapes, and we dothat. But we also handle many other medical conditions. School nursing haschanged, even in the 13 years I’ve been a school nurse,” she said. “We do a lotmore with sick kids.”

By “sick,” she means children who have a variety of pre-existing medicalconditions, including asthma, diabetes, seizure disorder and attention deficithyperactivity disorder, or ADHD. Some need emergency health plans, such thosewith allergies who might need to use an EpiPen (a device that injects a dose ofepinephrine, also known as adrenaline) to treat an acute allergic reaction.That’s handled by the school nurse, who also coordinates each student’sindividual health needs plan with their teachers.

The aim is to care for the children so they stay focused and interested inthe classroom.

“Children can’t learn if they aren’t healthy,” Telsrow said.

Phone calls

Telsrow spends a good deal of time on the phone speaking to parents,especially because of the many conditions presented by the students. At Wilson,she has 29 appointments per day for children who get some type of medication,which is double-locked and stored in her office. She also averages 30 childrenper day who come to see her with a complaint of some kind.

“I’ve seen up to 115 children in my office in one day,” she said, addingthat her great frustration is a lack of time with the students. To saveprecious time during the school day, Telsrow makes ice bags at home, takes themto school and stores them in an office refrigerator.

She can be sure a bag full of ice will be needed at some point.

Sure enough, while a reporter is interviewing her, an aide brings a younggirl into Telsrow’s office. The girl has fallen while getting off the bus andhurt her knee. The nurse quickly takes action, asking the girl to remove hertights so she can check the knee and then offers an ice bag. During thecheck-up, she asks several questions about the child’s well-being – and whethershe had time for breakfast.

Gillian McLeod, 7, then pops into the office with a girlfriend for a dose ofher regular medication. “If Gillian comes in on time, she can sign in for themeds,” Telsrow says as the little girl with long brown hair works hard topencil in the correct time on a sheet kept just for that purpose.

The children she sees every day are fun to talk to, Telsrow said, and thereis never a dull moment in her job.

Appreciative parents

Gillian’s mother, Raquel Rodriguez of Davenport, appreciates the care hersecond-grader gets from the school nurse. Raquel leaves for work at 6 a.m.every day, so Gillian can sleep a bit later and then get her requiredmedication as soon as she arrives at school.

“This is much more convenient,” Rodriguez said.

Patrick Loeffler’s mother, Christine, said her 8-year-old son getsmedication for ADHD. Christine – who has been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis– said that having her son’s medicine dispensed to him at school is valuable toher.

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