Covid-19 Nurse Notes

NURSE’S NOTE---2022/2023

Dear Parents/Guardians,

For the prevention of exposing others at school and school activities, with COVID-19 and other contagious illnesses, please continue to use our illness guidelines to keep students home when they are sick.

Quarantine recommendations for COVID, in general remain at 5 days at home with a return to school on the 6^th day if fever free, without the use of fever reducing medication, and symptoms are improving/you are able to sit in class without discomfort. Please stay home and contact Polo School, if you have tested positive for COVID-19, or have been a close contact to someone with a positive test for COVID-19, or have been recommended for a close contact quarantine by your physician/other agency, or you or someone you have been exposed to, plans to get tested for signs and symptoms soon, and will be waiting on test results. It is not possible to describe every scenario here, and there can be extraordinary circumstances that may alter the presumed plan. Please notify us, so that we can proceed promptly, and appropriately for contact tracing, as needed for school. We only contact trace staff/students who are known to be close contacts during the school day, and currently only those close contacts who are developing personal symptoms will be recommended to quarantine. If your family has a positive case of COVID-19, please also notify your physician, so they can give you final recommendations outside of the school setting. If symptoms are worsening, there are treatments to help you recover, before letting it get to a critical stage. I recommend you contact your physician to see if they would like to offer any early guidance or treatments if someone in the family has tested positive for COVID. Most recent cases that we have had reported this school year have been described as being like a bad cold or allergies, however, there are still those who may get a more severe case or are immune compromised, and more likely to develop symptoms.

In addition, per Polo R-VII School guidelines, keep students home for 24 hours after fever of 100.4 or higher, fever less than 100.4 while having other signs/symptoms, for vomiting, or diarrhea, and if they are being treated for a contagious illness such as Strep or Pinkeye, until they have been on medication for 24 hours. They cannot return sooner than, after 24 hours after having had these conditions, even while taking medication to control symptoms.

Keep in mind there are many things you can do on your own, proactively to help keep your immune system strong! Some things to strive for are making sure you are getting a good night’s sleep, staying hydrated daily with water, keeping your circulation going/walk or exercise daily, maintaining a healthy weight, keeping your blood sugar in good control, and eating nutritious foods/limiting sugar. Make sure you have adequate daily intake of fiber to remove wastes. Fiber in fresh fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, feeds healthy gut bacteria to help your immune system stay strong. Excess sugar is highly inflammatory to your body and feeds the wrong bacteria strains for breaking down foods in your gut where a large part of your immune system resides. Consider supplementing with a good vitamin/mineral to fill in the gaps in your diet, and add probiotic foods to your daily intake. Probiotic foods are raw sauerkraut, kombucha, kefir, kimchi, some yogurts, and some pickles. Some probiotics also come in capsule form or gummies, but food forms with probiotics contain the most effective strains. These are the basics to get you on the right track; there are many more things you can add later. If you could use improvement in any of these areas, start slow, and work to improve on one goal at a time. If you need help with ideas to make improvements, and want to promote a strong immune system that may help you fight off future illnesses and disease, please reach out to me. I truly believe acting preventatively instead of reacting once there is a problem, has the best outcomes.

If you are in question of whether to send your student to school when they have signs or symptoms of illness, please err on the safe side to keep them home, and call the school nurse for further direction. We will continue to observe local guidance and local trends of illness, so that we may adjust our plan as needed, to maintain a safe and healthy environment for our students and staff. We appreciate your efforts to help us keep our community well!

Respectfully,

Mrs. Sherry Christopher, RN, BSN

Polo R-VII School Nurse

660 354-3502 ext. 352