Clinic

Flu Season

 

Subject: FYI - Flu

As you are well aware it is influenza (flu) season, and many of our students and staff are showing flu-like symptoms.  These students/staff get sick very quickly and have symptoms of high fever, cough, sore throat and possibly headache, stomachache and vomiting.

 

The flu can be passed from person to person.  It is most contagious starting one day before the person feels sick and for approximately three to seven days after the symptoms begin.  The flu-causing virus is spread when a person with the disease coughs, sneezes, or speaks, and releases the virus in the air. The virus can be transmitted from the surface to the hand, then to the nose, mouth, or eyes, resulting in flu infection.  Therefore, it is important to wash hands frequently, cover your cough, keep hands away from the face, and clean commonly touched surfaces.

 

If the student/staff develops a fever or flu-like symptoms, it is important that they stay home and rest.  Guidelines for exclusion and readmission to school due to illness include:

 

1. Returning to school when fever free (100.9 or below) for 24 hours without fever reducing medication
2. Returning to school 24 hours after the last diarrhea stool
3. Returning to school 24 hours after the last vomiting episode 

 

Thorough hand-washing with soap and water is the best prevention.   

 Please keep your children home if they are sick. These symptoms are very contagious.

The best prevention from influenza (flu) is to be vaccinated with the flu vaccine even now.  It’s not too late.

Hope you all have a wonderful Holiday with your friends and family.

Pam Heath, RN

Drowning Accidents

Your Home Doesn’t Come with a Lifeguard
Staying safe around water is more than staying near the lifeguard at the pool. Every year many children drown in residential swimming pools, bath tubs, buckets of water and other containers of water. Anywhere there is water there is risk for drowning. Do not leave a young child unattended near any source of water, not even for a moment.
For more information or to enroll in Swimming and Water Safety courses, contact your local Red Cross chapter.
Remove the risk and prevent access.
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Use physical barriers to prevent children from accessing any source of water.
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Use safety locks on toilets and keep bathroom doors closed and toilet-bowl covers down if there are small children in the home.
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Empty cleaning buckets immediately after use.
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Empty kiddie pools immediately after use.
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Install barriers around your home pool. Pool alarms and covers provide additional layers of protection.
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Know the water hazards in your community and make sure children stay away. These hazards could include—
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Drainage ditches.
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Garden ponds.
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Creeks and streams.
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Wells and cisterns.
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Canals.
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When visiting another home, check the site for potential water hazards and always supervise children.
Practice water safety.
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Teach children to always ask permission to go near water.
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Never leave a young child unattended in a bath tub and do not trust a child’s life to another child or to aids that help a child sit upright in the tub.
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Have young children or inexperienced swimmers wear a U.S. Coast Guard-approved life jacket around water.
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When swimming, set specific rules for each individual based on swimming ability.
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Designate a person to watch over children whenever they are in, on or around any body of water.
Know how to respond to an aquatic emergency.
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If a child is missing, check the water first. Seconds count in preventing death or disability.
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Know how and when to call 9-1-1 or the local emergency number.
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Enroll in Red Cross water safety, first aid and CPR courses to learn what to do.
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Have appropriate equipment, such as reaching or throwing equipment, a cell phone, life jackets and a
first aid kit.

I hope all of you have a happy, restful and safe Summer. See you all back here in early August.

 

Pam Heath, RN

 

Hand Sanitizers

Parents we want to make you aware of the hand sanitizers we have placed throughout the building. They are located in the front lobby, outside the media center, inside the clinic, by the back kindergarten doors, outside each computer lab and down by the bus doors. Please feel free to use these when entering and  leaving the building. We are being proactive especially during flu season.

Please take your children to get the flu vaccine. Many places such as CVS, Walgreens, Target stores all have the vaccine available. Parents even if you have never had the flu in the past, this year would be a good year to get the vaccine. Flu season is just around the corner and it will be a tough year.

PLEASE REMEMBER, the safest, most effective way to prevent the spread of disease is by HAND WASHING. Ask your children about hand washing. We are encouraging them to wash their hands several times during the day.

HAND WASHING

Hello parents. Welcome to another year at Shallowford Falls. This year in an effort to try and prevent the flu from hitting our students, we are initiating a new policy with regards to hand washing. I have asked the staff to increase how many times the children wash their hands during the day. I feel that if our students are used to washing their hands, when flu season hits we will have  had a jump start on prevention.  Right now we do not know how bad the flu season is going to be.  Please ENCOURAGE your family to wash their hands at home and REMEMBER hand washing is the single most effective way to prevent the spread of disease. Wishing everyone a healthy school year.

Pam Heath, RN

Welcome Back Students and Parents

We are looking forward to another school year at Shallowford Falls. Please remember the clinic does not provide Over the Counter Medication to any student. If you would like to send in some Tylenol or Ibuprofen for your child please fill out the Authorization to Give Medication form which can be found on line at www.cobbk12.org under the category Student Health Services. I also have these forms in the clinic.  Parents please do not send medication in baggies. Medication must be presented in the original box from the pharmacy.If you need to reach me you may call during the hours of 7:30 A.M. = 2:30 P.M. @770-642-5610 or email me at pamela.heath@cobbk12.org. Wishing you all a healthy school year. Don't forget that the single most important way to prevent the spread of disease is by handwashing.

Head Lice

TIS THE SEASON for head lice. We have had several cases of head lice at Shallowford Falls this year. Letters go out to classes where we have found children with lice. We also have had children in ASP with head lice. Please check your child's head and help us prevent an infestation.

Some things you may do that would be of help to us are:

Examine your child(ren) every day for nits (eggs). Nits are tiny white specks that look similar to dandruff but cling to a hair strand, especially near the scalp, at the nape of the neck and behind the ears.

Do not let your child(ren) attend school if head lice is found until they have been properly treated.

If nits are found in your child(ren)'s hair contact your physician and follow the recommendations of your pharmacist.

Please call the school and notify the teacher so that other children in the classroom can be inspected and control measures initiated.

Thank you for your assistance.

Pam Heath

CLINIC REMINDERS

     Now that we have been in school for four weeks we are starting to see some illness. I would like to review some policies regarding sick children. Parents, please do not send your child to school if he or she has been vomiting or has had diarrhea in the past twenty four hours. Children need to be free from vomiting or diarrhea for twenty four hours before returning to school. The same policy applies to children with a temperature.

     If you would like to leave tylenol or ibuprofen in the clinic to have on hand for your child, please feel free to bring it to the clinic. There is a form that needs to be filled out giving us permission to give your child the designated medicine. Please remember that medicine of any kind needs to be in the original container from the pharmacy. We CANNOT accept any medicine placed in baggies and sent with the child.

     I hope that we will have a  healthy school year. Please remember that the single most important way to prevent the spread of disease is by handwashing. Parents please try to reinforce handwashing at home.

     If you need to contact me for any reason I can be reached by email at pamela.heath@cobk12.org or by telephone at 770-642-5610 ext.223.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS EVERYONE

I wanted to wish everyone a wonderful Holiday. Hopefully you will stay healthy and happy throughout the winter break. Have fun with family and friends. Get a much needed rest.

Please remember that the single most important way to prevent the spread of disease is to WASH YOUR HANDS.

Peace to all,

Pam Heath,RN

Asthma and Asthma Triggers

      As we approach the cold weather season,  with the weather cold one day and warm the next, many children are suffering with Asthma.  Although there is no cure for Asthma, it can be controlled. There are many triggers that could cause a child to have an asthma attack. If you would like to learn more about asthma and asthma triggers, please click on this link from Childrens's Health Care of Atlanta.  http://www.choa.org/default.aspx?id=1006.

      During the winter please make sure your child wears a jacket to school. Most children do go outside during the day. If your child is asthmatic let me know if he/she needs their inhaler before going outside or before going to PE. I do have a nebulizer in the clinic and if you want me to give your child a treatment during the day, please send in medicine, tubing and a mask with written permission. Remember that Asthma attacks can be prevented if you treat the child aggressively from the start. If you have any questions please do not hesitate to email me at pamela.heath@cobbk12.org or telephone me at 770-642-5610x223.

        Let's have a HEALTHY WINTER SEASON. Remember, the single most important way to prevent the spread of disease is HAND WASHING.

    

REMINDERS

     Now that we have been in school for four weeks we are starting to see some illness. I would like to review some policies regarding sick children. Parents please do not send your child to school if he or she has been vomiting or has had diarrhea in the past twenty four hours. Children need to be free of vomiting and diarrhea for twenty four hours before returning to school. The same policy applies to children with a temperature.

     Parents, if you would like to leave tylenol or ibuprofen in the clinic to have on hand for your child, please feel free to bring it to the clinic any time. There is a form that needs to be filled out giving us permission to give your child the designated medicine. Please remember that medicine of any kind needs to be in the original container from the pharmacy. We cannot accept any medicine in baggies.

     I hope that we will have a healthy school year. Please remember that the single most effective way to prevent the spread of disease is by handwashing. Parents please try to reinforce handwashing at home.

     If you need to contact me for any reason I can be reached by email at pamela.heath@cobbk12.org or by telephone at 770-642-5610 ext.223.

Clinic News

Check back in August for important clinic information.