Today I wanted to tell you a true story. Nurses are supposed to save lives, that is our job. We can save lives in many different ways, some of them obvious and others, not so obvious. If we can get a diabetic patient to modify their diet, take their medicine, and monitor their blood sugar, we may not think about it we have saved (or at least extended their life).
As a nurse we learn and train, take classes, and get certified. Sometimes we may think all of this is in vain. But it isn’t.
My wife’s cousin is a school nurse at a small elementary school, in rural South Eastern Kentucky. She had been a nurse, then stopped after she had her second year and returned this year (I think she might have been out of nursing for maybe five or six years).
A school nurse’s job is not glamorous. Normally you just make sure students take their medicine, if people get sick during school you watch them until they get to go home. This day was different though, a child stopped breathing on the play ground. Cassandra went into action. Her and someone that was visiting the school used the AED and CPR. They kept the child alive until the ambulance came which took over twenty minutes.
More details about this can be found here – http://uknow.uky.edu/content/kch-cardiologists-credit-nurses-quick-retrieval-aed-saving-childs-life
If you don’t know about AED’s here are some details –
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automated_external_defibrillator
And a CPR refresher –
https://www.redcross.org/images/MEDIA_CustomProductCatalog/m4240170_Adult_ready_reference.pdf
Whose life are you going to save today?
