ROANOKE, Va. – Virginia school nurses are in a classroom of a different kind. The National Association of School Nurses is offering mass casualty training to those who care for children all across the Commonwealth so they know exactly how to react in an emergency.
"It's not just one person that's going to make this succeed. It needs to be the nurse who is working with the principal, the staff, everybody has a role to play in the system," said Rebekah Reiner, Roanoke city nursing preceptor.
Eighty-four school nurses spent the day learning how to handle everything from influenza outbreaks to school shootings or explosions, a wide variety of situations that could happen at any moment.
"No one wants to think that it will ever happen in their school, but unfortunately, things do happen in schools and schools are big resource areas for communities so we need to be prepared for that," said Ellen Carroll, school nurse manager for Carilion Student Health.
This is the first time the School Emergency Triage Training has been offered in the area. Carroll says she and others fought to bring the program here in the hopes that all local school nurses would get the training they need to be a source of comfort.
"Sometimes, the only person that they trust in the school is that nurse. So it's nice knowing that the nurse is there to help and they feel a little more confident knowing that the nurse is stepping into the medical role," said Reiner.