Letter from Kari Asadorian

This is what I was going to say at the SEA meeting last night but got cut off. I was in line at the microphone but never got a chance.

I am disappointed, sad and mad.

I am disappointed in the district because Nurses were left out of the contract, leaving the future health needs of students woefully understaffed.
• No caps on caseloads
• Insufficient training for our new nurses
• No extra days compensation to prepare @ larger schools

Nurses use this time to develop and implement healthcare plans, manage immunization compliance, set-up their health rooms & other beginning of school year activities. We asked for 4 days for schools with 600 - 1199 students.  And 5 days for 1200 or more students but got nothing! Two more days of preparation time denied. I have more than 775 students & over 80 health care plans. Some nurses have more than 1700 students!

I am sad. As of September 8, there are 10 schools that do not have a nurse, not even 1 day a week.
We are experiencing a nursing shortage in the district due to poor pay.

We all know who will pick up the slack when we are not around – the SAEOPS (office staff).

I am also sad because we are divided – divided amongst our disciplines, amongst our schools and zones. So different from the night of September 3 when we voted unanimously to take this journey together.

We must not let the district split us. No matter what the outcome tonight – we need to accept it and remain united.

And lastly, I am mad at the district because of the injustice and lack of respect for nursing.

We nurses cover 97 buildings, 20 of them are level B - requiring a nurse in the building at all times

I was told to exclude the following bullets because people would glaze over
• Last year EMS was called 72 times
• We Administered over 26,169 medications
• Made 736 Vision Referrals & 144 Hearing Referrals
• We successfully got the Whooping Cough incident under control. Identified by our very own Sami Hoag (a 30 year veteran). She put a plan into action and worked with the CDC
• We also dealt with the Measles Scare in Washington – 0 incidence in SPS
• We brought 11,857 students into immunization compliance - achieving a 93% compliance

Our requests are not unreasonable. They are a matter of safety.

We deserve more and so do our students and families.

Kari Asadorian

School Nurse