North Dakota is the only state that has no organized school nurse program. That means school employees without medical training, such as teachers, principals and secretaries, dispense medications to students. Only 12 percent of North Dakota schools have a nurse to distribute medications. But the part-time position does not include medication distribution, and Hornbacher or his secretary fill that role. Tori Ohlhauser, who provides Will-Moore's school nursing, said she treats sniffles and scrapes in between making health plans.
Space is of a premium.
Her shift lasts from around 8 a.m. to noon, one day each week. That's just a well-known fact. We had two incidents on the playground with neck injuries. At Bismarck's Miller Elementary, one of many examples, secretary Yvonne Fisher distributes medicine. She said she is very cautious, but sometimes worries about safekeeping medicine for the school's 445 kids.