THE BAND-AID Lady By Linda Teiter
Yes, I do apply a lot of band-aids. Many of them the plastic kind.
Some the cloth kind. Some in the form of ACE bandages. Some large gauze
bandages. Yes, I do apply numerous little band-aids to paper cuts,
scratches, cut fingers, and skinned knees.
But, there are so many more band-aids that I apply. I began to think
about all the other band-aids that I apply during the course of a school day.
There are the invisible band-aids of encouragement to the student whose
parents are in the process of a divorce. The band-aid of listening to the
student who lost his mother to cancer. The band-aid of caring, to the hurt
and lonely student who thinks she has no friends. The band-aid of concern
to help cover the scars of abuse-both physical and mental.
There are the band-aids of love for students who wander the halls, a
constant source of jokes, verbal abuse and laughter.
Students come to the school nurse for the band-aid of knowledge when they
have a health concern. They look to the nurse for confidentiality when they
have a problem which seems insurmountable and unsolvable.
Students need band-aids of hope and encouragement. They need band-aids
of patience and time. Time to sit and listen to their problems and
concerns, no matter how trivial they may seem. And no problem is trivial to
an adolescent.
The School Nurse has a full supply of bandages. It is the school Nurse
who holds the band-aid of help, the band-aid of caring.
It is what nursing is all about.
So, yes, I guess I am the "band-aid lady," after all, but band-aids truly do
come in all shapes and sizes, and cover all sorts of wounds.
