Region to get retired nurses to help out with spotting early signs of an infected student or teacher

By Pepper Parr

August 30th, 2020

BURLINGTON, ON

The province announced that 500 +/- nurses would be hired to assist the return of students to school.

Every retired nurse in the province is going to want to take a closer look at this opportunity.

What wasn’t at all clear at the time was who would actually do the hiring: the schools – they didn’t think so.  The Regions – probably but they were still working their way through the document they got from the province and working out terms and conditions.

Meanwhile every retired nurse in the province who can find their little white cap with the black stripe would be lining up for what looked like an easy assignment.

Not enough to put a nurse in every school but there should be enough to create a core of nurses at each Public Health Unit who can respond quickly.

In its statement Halton Region set out what they expected – subject to a firm agreement in place of course.

Expected roles for School Health Nurses

Support existing school health and communicable disease control programs in public health by:

• Providing support to school boards and schools in the development and implementation of COVID-19 health and safety plans
• Providing sector specific support for:
• Infection prevention and control
• Surveillance, screening and testing
• Outbreak management; and
• Case and contact management
• Supporting communication and engagement with parents and local communities, as well as the broader health care sector.

With schools actually re-opening on the 14th – there will be enough time to get the nurses hired and train them for the task that will last until the end of the year.

The question in the air is – will there be a second wave and will Halton see very much in the way of infections?.

A school board just outside Montreal where schools opened last week reported a teacher who was found to be infected on the first day back in classrooms.  Isolation for all the children she was teaching along with her own social circle.

The provincial announcement was made late in July.