Ignorance was bliss, part II

Friday couldn't come soon enough...

I had hoped to continue under the radar and avoid being dragged into this mess, but after multiple emails over the last few weeks I can see that's no longer the case. First, it was inviting me (and two other nurses, and two health clerks) to help with scoliosis screening. I deleted it. There was a second one this week, "just a friendly reminder" about the screenings next week. I ignored it. Then, today, a third - directly to me from the organizing nurse, a question I have to respond to unrelated to the screenings, ending in "See you at screening at 9 am on the 16th." I have a real problem with wasting time and my schools come before anyone else's - and I have work to do on Wednesday. That, and it was totally overkill at my school with three nurses and a health clerk, and the only reason we had three was because it was my first time. This lady wants four nurses and two health clerks, and her school is the same size as mine; every class period they race through the screenings and then goof off until next class period. But, when I do respond to this email - and I have to, to answer her question - I know I'll be making enemies when I say no thanks. It's an unpleasant feeling. I don't like enemies, but when forced to choose between inefficiency and enemies, I'll take the latter.

At least these nurses are not quite as bad as what I witnessed on Wednesday. I went to another school to exchange audiometers (and am still kicking myself for missing the 911 call by minutes) and helped them screen the last few kids before the end of the day. It was painful watching the way one of the nurse's worked, or rather, didn't. The amount of time being wasted by inefficient and ineffective screening habits (i.e. on color vision testing, she was asking the kids not to trace the pattern but "tell me what color you see") was really sickening. My favorite health clerk was there and said she was ready to go off a cliff; it had taken all day to screen two kindergarten classes. To give you an idea of how the screenings worked at my schools, we screened 5 kindergarten classes - same number of people working the screening - in less than two hours. The health clerk was so upset and so frustrated she called me Thursday and I held the phone away from my ear as she ranted for a solid ten minutes about it - and I don't blame her. Could our district really not hire anyone better than this? Ugh.

And in reference to today's current events and the chasm between schools in our district similar to nurses within our district: across the freeway, I've been told, phones are ringing asking about the safety plan the school has in place for tsunamis. (We are 50-ish miles inland from the Pacific Ocean.) I'm pretty sure the parents at my schools either aren't aware or don't know what it is, and they sure aren't calling in about it.