Scoliosis testing in schoole. nurses who fail to detect

[spincon58]

Hi,
I'm in a delima, Fortune goes to a private school, and she had her first fitting for a boston brace yesterday. Just so happens today at school the nurses were checking for scolioss...They failed to notice her curve, they told her to keep her shoulders straight duh....and they failed to read the permission slip which states a strong family history...This is not the first time this happened...the school failed to see it in my other children...
Question....How good R these scoliu screening in schools..?
What requirements do the nurses have ?
Do they have to take a special class to detect scoliosis....??
If I had to rely on the school nurses, ....
?????

[Karen Ocker]

I just spoke to my sister-in-law who is a retired NJ school nurse. In NJ the school nurses in the public schools get a certificate in scoliosis screening. This requires taking a special course. I do not know whether this holds true in the private schools.

[spincon58]

Karen,
Do you have any suggestion on how I can get involved in getting better quality screening for my childrens school? What agency can I call to get these nurses certified? Does scoliosis have any genetic links to living locality? or nationality? Do you have a percenage list in where its high and where scoli is seen at its lowest?..... I think I want to volunteer and help the nurses in my school...

[Theresa]

Connie,

I can tell you, from someone working in a school, they always welcome help. In our school we have one school nurse who has to see about 900 children in grades PK to 5th grade. They are so overworked!! They also have to screen every student each year for hearing and vision, review all immunizations, not counting the day to day problems and children coming to school sick with fever, throwing up, and some parents using the school nurse in place of taking their child to the doctor for ringworm, lice, etc. Our schools have high school students that are training in the health profession that come over to help for half a day about 4 days a week. Maybe you can check out some of the scoliosis clinics or doctors about doing some school screenings. I know during the flu season we have help come in from the county health department to give flu shots, maybe they could also come in to do scoli screenings?

[Karen Ocker]

I suggest contacting the school principal and/or school board.

[spincon58]

I spoke to the nurse and asked her to recheck my duaghter for a learning lesson so they can see her scoliosis...She said she watches a film and takes a class.....so thats that..

[Alison]

How did Fortune's fitting go Connie?

I think I have one of the classic lines from a scoliosis screening. Up until the late 80's, they still did routine scoli checks. I was in Kindy in the late 80's and was wearing my brace 23/24 hours a day.

You would think they'd a diagnosis of scoliosis would be pretty obvious, but nup, my Scoliosis check diagnosis was: SPINE STRAIGHT.

And did my mum had a go at the school nurse for that one.

Still makes me wonder and shake my head in disbelief.......

Alison

[Mary Lou]

It's funny that this post is active right now. The other day I ran into a woman who was giving me the third degree about Jamie's Scoliosis. She knew Jamie had been in the hospital but didn't know what she was in for. I told her about her Kyphoscoliosis and explained what they both were. She didn't seem to have a clue what I was talking about! She asked me why I didn't notice Jamie's Scoliosis. (as though all of us parents haven't questioned ourselves). She has two daughters so I asked her when was the last time either of her daughters had an x-ray of their back. She said never. I then asked her when was the last time she saw her 13. y.o. daughter in a bathing suit bending over, touching her toes and if she examined her back at that time and she had no clue when she saw her daughter in that position and she also told me she never checks her daughters' backs. I told her those were the two easiest ways to see Scoliosis. I told her thank God our family doctor checks my daughter yearly and she seemed like her doctor didn't check her girls. I was so mad!

I questioned our middle school nurse and was informed they check our girls in seventh grade. Jamie was diagnosed in August before her seventh grade year, so what if Jamie hadn't been diagnosed and was absent the day of the testing? She could have gone untreated for another year until her next yearly check up with our doctor. I called the high school today out of curiosity and aske if they check the girls in high school. I was basically told they don't and that they are required to get a physical in sixth and eleventh grades and that their family doctors should check them and besides, they are required to have a physical in order to play sports. I asked,what about my girls who aren't into sports, but are in the band and aren't required to have a physical? She didn't have an answer for me. What about the kids who never go to the doctor?

Thank you for listening to me ramble on. This just has me so frustrated! Sure, most girls are skeletally mature by eleventh grade, but my daughter is also skeletally mature, but her curve still progressed. I need to figure out a way to get the word out to other parents in our schoo district. Besides my daughter there is another child who had spinal fusion w/instrumentation this year and at least one other girl (all three kids are eighth graders) who wears a Boston brace, so it should be an important issue in our school.

Mary Lou

[nikyergen]

Here's how I feel:

All three of my daughters play sports. All three of them are required to have sports physical's every other year. Guess what, they were never diagnosed at school or at their sports physicals. They all even went to a chiropractor on a regular basis to get their bones aligned, which was wasted money, because you can't fix this with a chiropractor. The chiropractor even missed it. My oldest daughter, Crystal, surgery March 15, even asked the chiropractor about it. She was just told she had lazy posture and so did her little sister. When Crystal would have to have chest x-rays because of her asthma, doctors would ask her if she had ever injured her back. Her response would be no, and the doctor wouldn't suggest anything else. So, even our medical profession missed it. The one that said something was a parent that I know that has a child with scoliosis. She even recommended a doctor for us to take Crystal for a Shriner referral.

I guess my thought is this: Those of us with this problem to deal with need to educate the rest of them, even the professionals. Because, they do miss it. And they missed it on all three of my kids, numerous times. I find I look at almost every kid now and see if they stand straight, etc.

I'll get off my soap box now.

'til later.
Nikki

[cub2007]

i went to private elementary school, in new orleans, where there is no scoliosis testing. it is such a shame that my parents paid so much money and there was no testing for this nor was there an official school nurse! they did have a secretary who handed out bandaids and ice packs which i dont think counts!

anyways, even my pediatrician, who i visited regularly, never noticed my scoliosis. they never wven checked me for it! my mom noticed my scoliois and by the time i went to the doc for it my curve was an outragous 46%.

eventually, i had to have surgery and no have to live withthe scar down my back. i dont mind it much , but what i do mind is the fact that the doctor never checked me for it! ...i dont see that doctor anymore!!!

[Bamaro]

There is no substitute for having your own pediatrician check for it. IMO, if he/she misses it, its time to get a new one. As far as nurses in school goes I guess results will vary. My daughter was just recently checked at her school and they sent a letter home saying that we should take her to a pediatrician because they detected it. This was a true diagnosis because our pediatrician had already discovered it about a year ago in its early stages.

[CurvySAT05]

I was checked going into 7th grade by our PE teacher at school. Unfortunatly our teacher was out on maternity leave and the Substitute teacher didnt know what to look for. My freshman year of high school I went for a sports phusical at my GP's office and didnt find it then either. Finally just before my sophomore year, during another sports physical (different season) our team doctor found my curve. It had only been about 4 mos. since I had seen my GP and he had just totally missed it. OOPS!

[mariann]

Hi everyone,

I stumbled across this website and was very interested in this thread. I am an RN presently working on my BSN with a focus on community health and can comment that (at least in my province of British Columbia) there is no formal training for nurses to detect scoliosis. While we do not have school nurses here, the public health nurses are in charge of a large area and, as far as I know, do not screen for this. Unless the nurse has personal experience with scoliosis or has worked with families and studied about it on his/her own and thus can recognize curvatures, there would be a high likelihood it would be missed.

In any case, I am adding this site to my favourites. I am learning a lot just by reading your posts and hope to add to my knowledge for future reference. Also, as a parent, even though I have professional training, it never occurred to me to observe my children's spines. I want to thank all of you for opening my eyes to this.

Mari-Ann

[expatient]

Read those and learn:

http://www.kalindra.com/ShawSIJ.pdf
http://www.healing.org/only-3.html
http://www.kalindra.com/faq.htm
http://www.independenceback.com/causes.htm

And here in Finland only very few knows that method how to put the Si back to its place. I am lucky I found one some time ago...

If anyone knows more Shaw, DonTigny or others, I am trying to collect them for my study of SIJD... I have more than 100 links to documents of SIJD, but I'm sure there is more... Those are the best!

[Cakedec]

I would like to get the exercises for SI joint disfunction, but your first 2 links don't work. Are there better ones?

Deb