As the school year begins, the nurses in the health center are collecting all seniors’ vaccine records to make sure that all seniors have received their second meningitis vaccine. According to nurse coordinator Kandyce Hardie, all seniors must give their immunization record documenting a second meningitis vaccine to the health center by Sept. 8.
“All of our seniors need their second meningitis vaccine, and we have around 290 as of today that have not received it yet, or we don’t have documentation that they’ve received it,” Hardie said. “So, we’re going to contact their parents to either schedule (their student) a doctor’s appointment or to send us the record showing that they’ve had it.”
In addition to primarily working on collecting immunization records from seniors, Hardie said the nurses are developing student health plans for students with high-risk diagnoses, including asthma, seizures and food allergies, and sending the plans to those students’ teachers to make sure they are fully aware of those students in the classroom.
While the nurses are collecting immunization records and creating health plans, a group of CHS students—nurses’ aides—help out in the health center with other tasks. Senior Claudia Shelbourn is one of these nurses’ aides. According to Shelbourn, the job consists mostly of small tasks, such as running passes and walking students to their classes.
“Usually, we take passes. We haven’t really done anything to help with stocking supplies yet, but sometimes we take students places,” Shelbourn said. “We’re just there if (the nurses) need a break, need somebody to help … or need us to run a pass or do something.”