Do You Want To Be A School Nurse?

Welcome back to What Do You Want to Be? I'm Mark. And I'm Joy.

And today, we're talking to someone who is a superhero at our school.

She helps everyone when they're not feeling well.

Please welcome our school nurse, Nurse T.

Hi, Nurse T.

Hi, everyone. Hi, Mark and Joy.

Thanks for having me here today.

And just to let you know, I watch a lot of kids' podcasts.

And I hope that our podcast is fun too. Just like how I watch.

Okay? Yeah.

Alright, let's get started with our questions. Joy?

I think a lot of kids think your job is just about band-aids and ice packs.

What other things do you do all day?

Okay, I'm going to give you an example that is really close to you.

Do you remember that I have to call you out from the classroom to come for an inhaler?

Oh, yeah.

So I got the information from your parents, like they emailed me.

And then that's how I know what time I should come and pick you up.

And before that, like before the school starts at the beginning of the year,

I will also message your parents and to us and your medical history.

Then I can deliver the information to all your teachers,

not just your homeroom teacher, your art teacher and all the special teachers.

That's how we know about you.

And then another thing is, do you notice that I'm actually in the games?

Yes.

Yeah, that's one of the things that the students do,

to be around during games to make sure everything is okay

and to be ready to help if anyone is injured.

Yeah.

What's the most common reason a kid comes to visit you?

The most common reason is like bruise, they fall, they scrape their hands or legs

and then stomach ache.

Heading is very common.

And sometimes I need to do some emotional support to some of the kids.

I've seen that before.

I've seen that somewhere.

I can't remember where but it was when I was younger.

I can't remember where I saw that.

What's the weirdest or funniest reason a kid ever came to your office?

The weirdest, I would say like kind of cool.

There's two things that I have to, I can tell.

The first thing, I have a student who fell,

like slipped and fell on a wooden bridge on a trip, like a weekend trip.

So this student had like a very large splinter under the foot.

So it doesn't look like a big one, right?

So then I was like, okay, trying to help the student to pull it out.

It's actually really big, it's almost like 2cm big.

Oh my god.

So like everyone, like me and the student is really surprised

about how the length of the splinter is.

And then she feels a lot better.

She's also a versatility soccer student at least.

So it's a really huge freely for her so that she can continue playing after that.

The second one is like, I have a student with fish bone in her throat.

Oh my.

Yes, so nursing is like removing it out from the trip.

Oh my, oh my.

That sounds like a doctor thing, right?

That sounds like a doctor would do if they work in a hospital.

Not what I would expect as a nurse to do it in the school.

Where did those fish bones come from?

From the lunch.

Yeah, from the lunch.

It's not from the school meal of course.

It's from what they bought from home.

So there's something like, okay, I told the kids that I'm going to try to see if I can take it out.

But it's pretty like, you can see it's inside.

So I just use a tweezer and like...

Oh my gosh.

Hola.

Were they screaming?

No, she's pretty like, she understands that she's going to stay calm and all that before I can do things.

What's the coolest thing you have in your outfit that kids might not know about?

Do you know I have needle in my class?

In my room?

What?

Needle.

Oh, those are like a little bit like a syringe or something.

The actual syringe.

Do you know that I have this?

No?

Yeah, this is like...

Joy, tell us what you're looking at.

Okay, okay, okay.

You're backing away from the table.

For our listeners, tell us what you see.

The thing that a doctor would use for a hint to give you a shot.

Yes, yes, yes.

Not the nose one.

But the super-duper-ouchy needle one.

This reminds you of getting a vaccine.

Yes, the reason I was backing away from the table was because I was like...

And I have these two.

This is a saline ampoule.

So these two things, I wouldn't say the coldest but then it's because

usually you have it in the hospital but not in the school.

I use this for different things.

It's not that I'm going to give you injection.

This is to help students with spinter.

Those very tiny spinter that I couldn't use the tweezer to pick it up.

So I have to kind of use the needle.

Yay!

We do not want to get a splinter at school.

But it depends on how big.

So the student that I mentioned earlier, I didn't use needle because it's pretty big

from outside that I can see.

So I just used the tweezer, the metal tweezer to put it out.

But those really, really small ones I might have to use this.

Okay.

Now you have scared me so badly that I am not...

and that I am going...

that I am never going to go near a tree eating it in school.

I'm not sure that's where the splinters come from.

Usually it's like if you're walking barefoot on something.

I'm never going to go barefoot again.

So what's this other thing that you have?

Yeah.

What is that?

This is like saline water for ingestion.

But I don't use it for ingestion.

I use it for to clean the wound.

So this one because it's really small so I can keep in the first aid kit.

You know like in the city office, I have a big bottle of saline water.

I dilute with the dead doll.

But because when I go out, when you have a first aid kit,

you didn't got to dilute it.

So I kind of keep this in the first aid kit and kind of dilute it when I want to use it.

So it's like this small one.

It's for easy storage.

So you take those with you, the small bottles of saline that you...

They're like one-time use and then you could use it if you're out on the soccer field.

Yeah.

Oh, Papa.

I have a question.

Yeah?

Can we take a photo of these for the audience to see?

Sure.

We can post them in our doughnuts.

How's that sound?

Do you get to get shot?

Is that... and is that scary for kids?

Honestly, don't give shot in this... in the school.

Although I have me, you know, strange but I don't...

Seriously?

Yeah.

So actually when you have this like,

good nurses, doctors that is carrying,

shot isn't that scary and you feel a lot better after that.

Yeah.

And having your parents around too.

Okay?

What's the hardest part about being a school nurse?

I thought about that for some time.

I actually couldn't find any,

but I think the only thing that I find it hard,

maybe like getting a help presentation really,

like a fun help presentation for the children.

Yeah.

If you could give every student one piece of health advice for school,

what would it be?

I think sleeping well is very important.

Yeah, because you sleep well, your brain works better

and then you're ready to learn next morning

and you also will feel happy.

Right?

Yes.

I would say like sleeping is one piece of health advice I could give.

Yeah, very important.

Do you get enough sleep?

Yes.

I don't know anymore because my watch is...

Your smart watch broke.

Yeah.

Now I don't have any other watches.

I see.

All right, it's time for our interactive segment.

Nurse T, so we want to put joy to the test

in a game we call Healthy Snack Sort.

Oh, no.

I'm going to name three snacks and joy.

You have to pick which one is the healthiest choice to bring to school.

Nurse T, you're the expert judge.

You ready?

Ready.

Are you ready?

Yep.

Okay, round one.

A bag of potato chips.

A chocolate bar.

And an apple.

That's a hard one.

Apple.

That's right.

Absolutely.

Because your rhythm is inside, right?

And then there's water and stuff like that for you.

Yeah.

All right, next one.

A juice box.

A can of soda.

Or a bottle of water.

A bottle of water?

You are right.

Again.

Because it keeps you hydrated.

And also, there's no sugar in it.

Oh, any flavor or coloring, right?

Okay.

Okay, last one.

A handful of baby carrots.

A fruit roll-up or a cupcake.

Fruit roll-up!

Oh, look at that.

You love fruit roll-ups, but you know.

That is not the most healthy option.

Which one would you choose?

A handful of baby carrots.

That's all right.

There's fiber for you in it.

Yeah, it helps you be good health too, right?

All right.

Nurse T, how did she do?

A-plus.

A-plus.

Three out of three.

Good job, July.

I think I was at A because...

Because you had to do the second one twice?

Well, more like...

Well, A-plus.

Because I was so excited about the fruit rolls-ups.

That I was like, fruit rolls!

Because I forgot that we were doing a podcast.

Before we let you go, we have two final questions.

First, what is your favorite part of your job?

The favorite part of my job is, of course, taking care of the children.

Make them feel that they are caring and loveful.

And last, what advice would you give to a kid

who might want to be a nurse when they grow up?

So, nursing career is actually very fulfilling

because you make a lot of connections to people

and they get to talk to them and take care of them.

I love it.

Okay, well, Nurse T, thank you so much

for taking care of everyone here at school

and for talking with us today.

Thank you.

You're almost welcome.

Stay healthy, everyone.

And a huge thank you to our listeners.

Join us next time for another episode of

What Do You Want to Be?