It’s about kids’ safety

Re “Kids pay price in medical turf war,” Column, Nov. 23

California’s nurses share Steve Lopez’s concerns for the problems that diabetic students face. For years, school nurses have been asking the system to prioritize school nursing services for many needs, including treatment for Type 1 diabetic children.

But rather than fighting for more licensed nurses to protect our children, some school administrators prefer to take risks with our children’s health. The proposal that unlicensed school workers with four hours of training be allowed to administer drugs or oversee healthcare for students is a recipe for disaster -- especially when that drug is insulin.

Young diabetics should not be stripped of the patient protections in California law, which guarantee that, at the least, a licensed nurse administers potentially fatal drugs. Training diabetics and parents to perform “self-care” should not become a new standard of care.

If unlicensed workers in schools could tell their stories, we would hear about all the near-misses because the schools won’t make healthcare a budget priority. We hope parents and nurses can join together to make that case.

Deborah Burger

Santa Rosa

The writer is president of the California Nurses Assn. and a diabetes case manager.

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I am the father of a seventh-grade boy with diabetes, and I attended the hearing in Sacramento at which the judge announced his decision on the nurses’ lawsuit.

Lopez reports Donna Garber, the CNA’s director of government relations, as stating the judge ruled that only a nurse can administer insulin in school. More precisely, the judge found that a school employee cannot give insulin unless he or she is a nurse. A parent can still designate anyone to come on campus and give a child an insulin injection, and that person does not have to be a nurse.

If the nurses really think that insulin administration is so difficult that it can only be done by a nurse, why aren’t they challenging administration by children, parents and others designated by parents?

The nurse organizations clearly care more about their jobs than they do about our children. They are willing to deny our children essential medical care to advance their own selfish agenda. Shame on them.

Jim Stone

Modesto

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I thought I was having a reading comprehension problem when I read that lawyer Jeffrey Ehrlich, the father of a diabetic child, stated that managing his daughter’s diabetes is “not rocket science.” In the next paragraph, he tells how his child became unconscious at school and has been home schooled ever since!

When my diabetic granddaughter, now 20 months old, attends her local school, I would like her to have a registered nurse on campus. I hope my son and daughter-in-law fight for that. Frankly, I’m shocked that this is not in place already.

Linda Mele Johnson

Long Beach