Schools
D303 School Nurses and Student Train to Stop The Bleed
Eight D303 school nurses and Ben Rinker, a senior at East High School, received valuable, life-saving Stop The Bleed training.
On April 19th St. Charles District 303 school nurses and an East High School student received Stop The Bleed training. According to the press release,"Stop the Bleed is a national awareness campaign and a call to action. Stop the Bleed is intended to cultivate grassroots efforts that encourage bystanders to become trained, equipped, and empowered to help in a bleeding emergency before professional help arrives". Dr. Amy Stewart and Nurse Danielle Penman offered free Stop the Bleed training to 8 D303 school nurses and Ben Rinker, a senior.
Dr. Amy Stewart MD, FACS is a trauma and acute care surgeon at Lutheran General Hospital. Dr. Stewart is Vice Chair of the Chicago Committee on Trauma, Chair of Stop the Bleed Chicago. Danielle Penman works as a nurse for a local hospital and is a parent of St. Charles District 303 students. Her 19 years of experience includes labor and delivery and current role as an obstetric bereavement coordinator. Their goal is to spread awareness about the availability of training and to help provide this valuable training to others.
Some states provide Stop The Bleed kits to schools and special training to teachers. Currently, for Illinois school districts training and bleed control kits are optional. There is a Bill introduced in the Illinois General Assembly that recommends all school districts provide Stop the Bleed training and bleed control kits. If the Bill is passed, training and kits will be recommended in all schools.
May is National Stop the Bleed month and extra classes will be available in the Chicago Metro Area throughout the month. Stop The Bleed classes are free one-hour, hands-on class for adults and teenagers. To sign up for classes visit https://www.bleedingcontrol.org/ or by email StoptheBleedChicago@gmail.com. Participants learn to save the victim’s life by learning how to identify life-threatening bleeding and how to stop it until medical personnel arrive.
This initial training of D303 nurses and a student was a great way to introduce this topic and raise awareness in the schools. The next step would be to offer training to more personnel like teachers and support staff and students at both North and East high schools.
