![]() We are able to “participate” in the world by the five senses: touch, taste, hearing, smell, and sight. We all agree that seeing is a pretty awesome deal. Now, with that being said, I do document “PERRLA.” That’s ‘cause I am too doggone lazy to type out, “Pupils equal, round, reactive to light and accommodation.” First of all, how do we see? There ain’t too many mammas, daddies, or teachers that know what OU, OS, or OD mean. But, we do need to know these three for sure:įor me, I’d just as soon document right, left, and both or bilateral - especially in the school house. So, knowing what PXG, NAION, and EKC mean may be a waste of brain bandwidth. But, we school nurses will not be assessing for things like pseudoexfoliation glaucoma, non-arteritic ischemic optic neuropathy, or epidemic keratoconjunctivitis. There are actually dozens and dozens of abbreviations for the eyes and for conditions of the eyes. It’s not surprising that the abbreviations for the medical documentation of the eyes is confusing. Often, based on teacher concerns, I am able to identify an issue that needs to be addressed with an ophthalmologist (eye M.D.) or optometrist. While I have the equipment, I send out a school-wide message asking the teachers of other grades to provide a name or two of children they’ve notice having difficulty, and I will screen them as well in order to rule out vision issues. WOW! What efficiency! Mass immunizations, health exams, vision and hearing exams, and then out the door to get into formation for the day’s instructions…school systems should take notice…and I am only a little kidding… Vision screeningsĮach year I screen my kindergartners and my third-graders. And what do you think happened to those glasses the first chance those 17- and 18-year-old soldiers got? Yep! Afte rall, it’s kinda hard to think you have perfectly good vision your whole life and then be told to wear the new glasses in an already stressful environment. I guess my vision screening went okay I was one of the lucky ones that didn’t get a pair of those thick black-rimmed glasses like a dozen or so of my fellow soldiers received…and at a complete surprise to many of those in the new vision-impaired club. Nothing about the findings of our medical exams were discussed with us. I remember how my new Velcro wallet sounded when I opened it…yeah…it was a lot like that. Getting up from those seats was like having flesh ripped after our bare thighs had stuck to the plastic surface. We were ushered along to declare our religious preferences for our dog tags and then to sit on a cold, plastic seat for vision screenings. Wait! Did they change that needle? There we were, walking through an immunization assembly line with nothing on but our green BVDs and with both deltoids dripping blood and leaking this clear liquid (immunization juices) from multiple injection sites. We were lined up one-by-one to get shots…with this gun-lookin’ injection apparatus. I remember way back in Army basic training (1998), one of the first things they did to us were all kinds of medical exams There we were all in a line and sporting nothing but our olive-green government-issued briefs (boxers for those who felt they needed a bit more *room*). But, take note: It will hurt my feelings if you miss my rambling… Na! We’ll digress a bit more… This is a long article…and Nurse Kevin does a lot of gabbing…if you want to scroll down to see the ailments we are looking for during vision screening, feel free. But wait! I digress…let’s talk about vision screenings. Maybe next year I will look at a change and see about middle school or even high school. You can tell I am a school nurse for elementary school students. Allergies…CHECK! Immunizations…CHECK! Vision screening… CHECK! What’s next? Follow-ups for sure (with puberty class lingering). ![]() The school year is progressing along lickety split! We’ve been back to school for 94 days and have 197 left until summer break… including weekends and holidays…not that I’m counting or anything like that. ![]()
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