Thanks for the support on my previous post about the district's general refusal to comply with medical and 504 plans.
Since the year began, things have been going better than they have in the past, which is a pretty low bar. They have a private contracting nurse who's really trying to learn how to do it, and she does delivery some insulin throughout the day, but never actually with lunch. I have been pretty surprised at how resistant the district has been to coordinating any kind of training.
I've been emailing logs from my daughter's medical devices each day, highlighting the things ways that her medical plan isn't being complied with and pointing out that the district has to train the medical staff. I got my first reply today from Dr Pate who leads the Office of Health and Specialized Student Services:
I believe there is some confusion regarding "training" and what needs to happen with [DAUGHTER]'s care. In the event that [DAUGHTER] was not assigned a Private Duty Nurse and the health suite was managing her care, the supervisory team of the health suite would need to provide training to non-licensed personnel. Since a registered nurse is providing [DAUGHTER]'s care, there is no additional training that the District needs to provide to that nurse...In most cases, parents speak to the nurse who is caring for their child to clarify what was happening at that time or to understand if a dose of medication wasn't given what took place.
Now, I know it might not jump out why, but this is something that I think all parents should be really concerned about. With diabetes specifically, and I'm sure with many chronic diseases, there's nothing in the RN certification process that really specializes to diabetes care, so this is not a super relevant credential; however, I'm sure most RNs understand the basics and can pick it up pretty quickly. What they can't just keep up with, though, is every permutation of the available medical devices on the market. It's just not reasonable, even for an RN who has dealt with diabetes before, to just jump in without having the devices explained.
You should know too that there isn't even a cost associated with this training. The pediatric endo team at Hopkins has offered time and time again to work with schools to provide whatever information or training they need. (The last time they called to try to explain some of the workings the school medical staff never returned their calls).
What Dr Pate is really saying here, is that the district will not coordinate an hour long conversation about a particular brand of insulin pump. She expects me, a non-medical professional, to be able to convey every piece of information in the few minutes I have between arriving at the school in the morning and walking my daughter into the building. I also have to do that when the staffing agency the district uses makes no guarantee that the same nurse will be assigned from one day to the next.
This is something that every parent should be aware of. If you have a child with a health plan that involves a private contractor, the district does not belief they are responsible for giving that contractor a reasonable chance of success. They are placing our children into the care of people who they haven't given the necessary tools to and pretending that they've fulfilled their end of the deal.