According to High School Co-Principal Mr. Andrew Rantz, the number of Milton students visiting the nurse is four times higher than in other school districts. In order to combat this issue, the district’s school nurses came together to make new guidelines for visiting the nurse’s office.

According to School Nurse Ms. Crystal Hoover, she and the other district nurses got together last summer to look at the number of nurse visits last year. She said that they decided to put guidelines in place because of how many students were going down to the nurse unnecessarily.

A handout distributed to teachers called “When to Send” covers the steps teachers and students should take if injuries or ailments occur.

“Bloody nose remains in the classroom and only after 15 minutes of constant pressure without resolution, should be sent to nurse,” according to the handout. The handout also explains any symptoms that would have a student sent to the nurse immediately, including “any difficulty from airway, breathing, changes in color, or choking.”

According to Ms. Hoover, nurse visitation has gone down significantly since the guidelines were put into effect.

“At the end of last year, we weren’t doing things like contact tracing or sending kids home for a few symptoms, so we decided to put some guidelines in to say when it’s appropriate to send kids to the nurse,” said Ms. Hoover. “It allows for us to focus on the kids that need to come to the nurse regularly.”

Ms. Hoover said that the new regulations for going to the nurse’s office include teachers asking students if going there is necessary.

“For example, if they [students] just have a paper-cut or something like that, they don’t need to go to the nurse’s office if the teacher has a band-aid,” said Ms. Hoover.

According to Mr. Rantz, the main goal of the guidelines is to make sure that an excessive number of students aren’t visiting the nurse when they don’t need to.

“Our nurses are trying to make sure that teachers and students understand when it’s appropriate to come to the nurse,” he added.

“I think there were definitely some times where students ask to go to the nurse’s offices when it’s not necessary,” said Mr. Rantz. “Now that those guidelines have been made, visitation has really relaxed.”

“Based on what I’ve been told, nurse visits are a lot stricter than last year,” said Junior Savannah Nixon. “Like in gym class, the option for going to the nurse is a lot more limited. If you’re hurt, you can’t just go down to the nurse now.”

According to Savannah, she thinks that some aspects of the guidelines are beneficial.

“It keeps kids from taking advantage of the nurse’s office and just skipping class to go there,” she said.