Participants brush up on their skills before school starts so they can perform both routine and life-saving procedures

Codwell ES Nurse Carla Carter (right) learns the correct way to perform a gastrostomy feeding from HISD Nurses Joan Maset (left) and Linda Hill (seated).

Until this week, Nurse Carla Carter had never had to catheterize a student in the course of her duties at Codwell Elementary School. But she felt both confident and capable of doing so when the time came, thanks in part to the skills-update workshops offered each year by HISD’s Health & Medical Services department.

“You never know what’s going to come on campus,” explained Carter. “Each semester, you might get a child with a different condition than you had the one before. Today was a perfect example. I’m in my fifth year with HISD, but I never had to catheterize a student until now. Just this morning, we got a student I have to catheterize twice a day.” Continue reading →