The tragic death of a student highlights the implications for varsity nurses

According to recent news reports, a 13-year-old student at Cecil Avenue Middle School in Bakersville, California, collapsed while sprinting during physical education class. According to folks Livia Salas and Jose Beltran, two physical education teachers saw the scholar, Jose Manuel Beltran Salas, collapse but didn’t perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation or call 9-1-1. Instead, they called a district nurse whose job duties required her to cover several schools and who was not at Cecil School on the time of the incident. When a nurse was reached, she allegedly told teachers to call 9-1-1 and immediately went to the center school herself. The 9-1-1 call was directed to “Northern 9-1-1” in Canada. Following this error, the decision was redirected to the suitable local agency. The nurse arrived at the college before the paramedics and located Jose lying face down on the gymnasium floor. She placed him on his back and started cardiopulmonary resuscitation, which was the primary medical intervention about 10 minutes after he collapsed, in keeping with the grievance filed by his parents. The emergency medical team took the boy to hospital, where he was pronounced dead. The parents’ wrongful death lawsuit, filed Nov. 12 against the Delano Union School District, five school district employees, the town of Delano, Kern County and the state of California, alleges liability for his or her son’s death, negligent hiring and seeks funeral and burial expenses. Now that the case has been delivered to court, it is for certain that additional facts, information and circumstances of the boy’s death will come to light. Regardless of the consequence of this case, the death has consequences for varsity nurses. First and foremost, you might be accountable for ensuring that college staff are properly trained in cardiopulmonary resuscitation and/or using defibrillators. If your state doesn’t mandate defibrillators in schools, contact your legislators and persuade them of the necessity in all schools. It can also be vital to coach parents and communities about this need and their participation in contacts with legislators. School staff should receive regular training in the correct use of cardiopulmonary resuscitation and/or defibrillators. This could be easily achieved through training programs conducted by third-party providers who’re experts on this field. Another responsibility of college nurses is to emphasise the importance of college staff immediately calling 9-1-1 when an incident occurs. This call could be made by a delegated school worker who does so when resuscitation begins. This priority have to be followed no matter whether you might be on or off campus when the incident occurs. When calling 9-1-1, the caller must discover himself, provide the right school name and address, and the character of the emergency. All school staff must know the right number to call if a medical emergency occurs in school. In this case, the right call could have been made but could have been incorrectly routed. More resources could be present in the National Association of School Nurses report, “Emergency equipment and materials in the college environmentPerhaps this young boy’s death might have been prevented, or perhaps his heart condition couldn’t have been reversed. This fact may never be known for certain. However, it is crucial that you just fulfill your responsibilities as a faculty nurse consistent with the general standard of care for college students. Editor’s Note: Nancy Brent’s posts are for educational purposes only and shouldn’t be construed as specific legal or other advice.