School nurses have long been on the front lines of supporting the health of their communities, a fact made very clear in recent years. During the pandemic, they were key sources of information and support for students, staff and families to stem the spread of COVID-19. More recently, school nurses at Des Moines Public Schools were trained on the use of Narcan, and provided supplies of it for the offices, in response to the nation’s opioid crisis.
This week, as educators across DMPS held professional development sessions, nurses had one of their own that added to their skills in responding to traumatic injuries, whether caused by an accident or an act of violence.
The initiative – Stop the Bleed – is designed to respond to what is the number one cause of death after an injury: bleeding. Doctors and nurses from the trauma team at Unity Point led the session which included topics such as the ABCs of bleeding control (Alert 911, locate the Bleed, and Compress the wound).
Then it was time for some hands-on training as the nurses took turns demonstrating how to pack and compress various wounds (on non-human models) and the proper way to use a tourniquet (on their human colleagues).
“Our nurses do so much to contribute to the health and well-being of our schools and the entire community,” said Melissa Abbott, health services supervisor at DMPS. “While we hope to never have to deal with a traumatic injury in a school, no matter the cause, that requires us to use this training it is good that we have another lifesaving intervention available should it ever be needed.”
Not only did the Stop the Bleed workshop help school nurses hone their skills in responding to serious wounds, but it also enables them to train others at their schools with the same knowledge.
The idea that led to the development of the Stop the Bleed program began a little over a decade ago following the tragic mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut. But from that tragedy came an effort to help people better respond to traumatic injuries, no matter the cause, and save lives.
