The Anniston Star l Monday, August 10, 2009
MONDAY RECORD YOUR GUIDE TO PUBLIC RECORDS AND VITAL STATISTICS IN CALHOUN COUNTY
Off to work ... with a school nurse
Hundreds of ‘patients’ are potentially hers By Bill Edwards bedwards@annistonstar.com
Imagine a job where you have to be mom, detective, file clerk and above all, healer. That would be the job of school nurse, the post Demetria Houston has held at Oxford Middle School since October, 2004. She’s one of six nurses in the Oxford school system, and while her work may be less emergency-oriented than it once was at Regional Medical Center, where she gained experience in both delivery and operating rooms, the demands are no less incessant. More than 600 twelve- to 14-year-olds, all at a crucial stage of development, are her potential patients. “They’re transitioning, too,” she said of the children bound for adulthood. “They come here and they’re expected to be more adult-like.” She estimates 30-35 students visit her office on a typical day, and that of the school’s total enrollment she’ll see more than half of them during the year — some only for occasional bumps and sprains, others for daily pills. And therein lies one of the crucial duties of a school nurse: as gatekeeper to medicine. “All medication has to be brought in by a parent,” she said — students aren’t allowed to keep any with them, including even something as simple as aspirin. “You worry about something getting into the wrong hands,” she said. A parent herself, Houston understands the importance Please see work ❙ Page 3
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Bill Wilson/The Anniston Star
Demetria Houston is the school nurse for Oxford Middle School.
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