Rural school nurses trained by Children's Hospital Colorado thanks to federal grant
Nearly 100 school nurses from rural school districts gathered in Fort Morgan in northeastern Colorado Monday for advanced training. The nurses gathered from Colorado, Wyoming and Nebraska to be taught extra skills and techniques by staff from Children's Hospital Colorado. This training was made possible by a federal grant of more than $400,000.
"This is the first time Children's has been able to do this type of outreach training to different areas of Colorado," said Andria Redman, school nurse with Children's Hospital.
Nurses from rural districts were tasked with visiting nine different learning stations during their training at Fort Morgan High School. Each station touched on a different version of care including asthma, allergies, CPR.
"Medical care is extremely hard to come by with resources that are not necessarily a medical desert, but close to, with families with medical needs that are more than just what our medical facilities can provide," said Rena Frasco, assistant superintendent for Morgan County School District.
Most small towns do not have major health provider offices. Often times, the most reliable resource to health care children have comes from their schools.
"Being in a rural area, we are kind of a one-stop shop," said Brittney Weimer, a school nurse.
Weimer was one of the few who helped advocate and coordinate the event for the nurses.
"It is important to know how to care for our kiddos," Weimer said. "It is nice to have the one-stop training so we are educated and can take care of our students."
Those who attended the training said this event was one important asset to make sure that children of all ages and communities can have access to the same level of medical care while they are at school.
"If (the nurses) can walk away with one thing they can implement, it will be successful," Frasco said.
"We know that the complex medical kids are not just in the Denver Metro area; they are all over Colorado," Redman said. "So we want to be able to provide resources and education to those school nurses."
