Volunteers crucial to annual health checks

    School Nurse Angie Paisley said she couldn’t do it without them.
    She’s talking about the 34 volunteers who helped her get through the annual student health checks she coordinates each fall at Chase County Schools.
    A total of 570 students in first through 12th grades underwent the screenings for vision, hearing, blood pressure and oral care, as well as measurements for height, weight and body mass index.
    She had a little extra help this year as the Nebraska Lions Foundation brought its Mobile Screening Unit (MSU) to Imperial for last Thursday’s and Friday’s health checks.
    Along with Allen Darell, MSU manager-operator, who conducted all of the hearing tests, 13 Imperial Lions Club members helped with the vision screenings.
    Twenty-one other volunteers from the community assisted in the other areas, Paisley said.
    “I couldn’t do it without them. I’m so appreciative of all their help,” Paisley said of the volunteers.
    With the Lions’ MSU here this year (scheduling doesn’t allow it every year), Paisley said it cut the time required for health checks in half, from three full days to about one and a half.
    A big part of that is due to the three Welch Allyn Spot Vision Screeners that came along with the MSU.
    Using what looks like a Polaroid camera, the five-second process screens the eyes for seven different tests, Paisley noted, and can be used on children as young as six months.
    Four of the major tests it screens for are myopia, hyperopia, astigmatism and gaze development. It prints out a report on each student after the eyes are scanned, which lists if there are any vision areas of concern, Paisley noted.
    “It’s pretty amazing,” she said.
    When the screeners were first used at the school in 2016 when the MSU also helped with health checks, Paisley was so impressed with them she acquired one for CCS. That way, she can conduct vision screenings on transfer students who enroll later in the year.
    The Imperial Lions Club paid for half of the school’s screener as a service project, with school funds paying the other half.
    Kindergartners aren’t included in the health checks because state law requires them to have a full physical and professional vision screening before starting school. Once they arrive, Paisley does hearing and dental checks on the kindergarten class herself.
    Due to logistics, Paisley said the years the MSU is not here for health checks, they only have time for hearing checks for grades 1-3.
Ninety-two referrals
    One of the major reasons health checks are conducted each year are for possible problems that haven’t surfaced.

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