Just in case you haven't read it yet, the following is this week's blog entry of a fellow classmate, an esteemed colleague and good friend of Sir William Shakespeare, Andrew T. Kamrouz:
"This scenario has the makings of a Shakespearean tragedy in that so many things must and do go wrong for there to be an unfortunate outcome. As a friend of a number of asthmatics, I can say that most people with a propensity for asthma attacks should (and often do) carry their own inhalers, even in elementary school. Second, the office seems like it could use some organizing, and it may have been a good idea for the nurse to leave some instructions with the office assistant for the days that there will be no nurse on duty. Or at least label the cabinets so that the asthma meds wouldn't be mixed up with the bandaids and lollipops.
More pertinently, our healthcare system could use an overhaul so that a career in nursing is a bit more appealing, and 3 schools wouldn't have to share a single nurse (afterall, the need for nurses is ubiquitous in nearly every branch of healthcare). This could include the government subsidizing nursing school programs, offering higher wages and better hours for nurses, more attractive insurance policies, and other incentives for nurses working full time or in schools, etc. Perhaps we could also instate a universal healthcare system so that the parents of our unfortunate 9 year old wouldn't have to worry about paying for expensive inhaler refills, and she could see a doctor more regularly to keep her medication current and appropriate. And while we're on the subject of overhauls, the education system could also use more funding (so that they can afford a nurse for more than 1.7 days per week, not to mention the raising the quality of education), and we could also clean up the Port of Los Angeles and develop a very comprehensive, super green public transport system to lower the pollution level in the city so that asthma rates wouldn't be so high in the first place. Also, I'm a big fan of the metric system."
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Now I'd like to take some time to address the serious issues that were brought up in an otherwise sarcastic and comical piece full of satire. Without questioning why our classmate has several friends in elementary school, it is important to understand that in some school districts, all prescriptions and medications must be filed and kept with the nurse. This was the case even at my high school (I remember because I was afraid that when my biology class got searched by drug dogs they'd find my stash of three Tylenols in a ziploc bag and I'd get into trouble...no joke). So although a lot of the author's pre-pubescent friends are smuggling drug paraphernalia in their Hannah Montana backpacks and Transformers lunchboxes, there are other ways to go about solving this problem.
As Mr. Kamrouz mentions, organization is the first big step to eradicating unneccessary hospital (or maybe even emergency room, if uninsured) visits by children suffering mere asthma attacks. The efficiency of a system in which occurrences like this go on is questionable at best. Simple labeling of drawers, cabinets, and files can make finding medications easier than receiving a government bailout. And if it takes too much time, have the kids do it in arts and crafts or in spelling class. They'll get a kick out of trying to spell albuterol and pirbuterol and it'll serve as a jumpstart to their pre-med education. If people know where things are when the nurse is at one of the other two schools, or just enjoying a day away from the kids because her mom called in for her, there wouldn't be such a scramble to find the necessary inhaler or medication.
The easiest solution, though, would be to hire a nurse at each elementary school, but I can understand why that money may go elsewhere, like getting a new playground where kids can have fun and sometimes get hurt and then go get the wound disinfected and covered with a bandaid from the....oh wait, scratch that (No, no not the wound, silly! The idea that the nurse would come to the rescue, duh). The point is that a lot of the money received from funding that we all pay through taxes is being spent on little things (unless it's a huge playground that'll fit someone my size), when it should be spent on things and individuals who are more ubiquitous in society, such as nurses.
Although I will not go as far as to say that I am a fan or even a proponent of the metric system (because I like it when I have to think and make complicated conversions....sike), I will say that I do enjoy a good ol' futbol (please note spelling) game from time to time. I'm not talking about a rivalry like Chivas USA vs. LA Galaxy (which ended in a scoreless tie...booooooringgg), but more like today's Liverpool vs. Chelsea matchup that was more up and down than funding for SB1. Actually, that's just been down so that was a terrible attempt at an analogy.
Bottom line is this, everyone has suggested everything that can be done to help avoid this situation and I think if we take the information from the prompt and couple it with the data in the Children's Health Study currently being conducted by elite members of the faculty at USC, we will find that the areas in California most prone to pollution are schools close to freeways. Elementary schools. With kids. Asthmatic kids. Innocent kids. So remember, help control the asthmatically attacked population and have your nurses and staff spayed or neutered...errr I mean educated and ready to provide the proper inhalers.
L-l-l-l-l-l-like a lollipop.
Oh, and Aaron, I feel you on the whole pocket thing, but I liked your Play Station analogy better because it made less sense and was more confusing...this pocket one reminded me of the metric system, so easy a caveman (or ogre) can do it. Maybe Andrew's a caveman and that's why he likes it better. It's all starting to make sense. I think the "T" in Andrew T Kamrouz may stand for Tor, an infamous caveman after whom Andrew's parents named him.
TOR:
ANDREW TOR KAMROUZ:
I mean he's even carrying a club in his hand and wearing a t-shirt in icy winter conditions. No way he's human. (And Aaron's head is almost the equivalent of the monkey on the real Tor's shoulder).
OK, I've spent two hours on this, I should really stop now.
TOR:
ANDREW TOR KAMROUZ:
I mean he's even carrying a club in his hand and wearing a t-shirt in icy winter conditions. No way he's human. (And Aaron's head is almost the equivalent of the monkey on the real Tor's shoulder).
OK, I've spent two hours on this, I should really stop now.
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