Why:

According to the Mayo Clinic, “uncontrolled bleeding is responsible for 35 percent of pre-hospital trauma deaths and 40 percent of deaths within the first 24 hours. The Stop the Bleed campaign was launched in 2015 as part of a nationwide effort to reduce these numbers. Stop the Bleed aims to teach civilians simple techniques to slow or stop life-threatening bleeding, believing that people already at the scene can help save lives before first responders arrive.” (Mayo Clinic)

A trauma causing uncontrolled life threatening bleeding can happen in many ways including hunting, shop equipment or playground accidents and mass shootings.  Read this Atlanta Georgia news clip about how use of a tourniquet saved the life of a student after breaking her arm at school.

Where and What:

A community emergency preparedness grant has funded Bleeding Control Stations placed at every school starting in the winter of 2018-19. Generally, the station will be near the schools’ AED, entrance or lobby area or some other readily accessible and known area. There are multiple bleeding control kits in each station. In addition, each schools’ Medical Grab and Go Kit will have one bleeding control kit.

How to Use:

All staff should be familiar with where their school’s bleeding control station is located. The full day Active Resistance Trainings offer bleeding control practice. Principals may invite the school nurse to review the use of the bleeding control components and have staff practice tourniquet application. In addition, all staff are encouraged to utilize the training links below. They include an algorithm for bleeding control and videos on how to use each component of a bleeding control kit.

CPR and First Aid

All staff are encouraged to take CPR and First Aid courses for certification.

For off campus activities (field trips) there must be a person present with current “American Red Cross Standard First Aid or equivalent certification”. This is generally considered as both CPR and First Aid. American Heart Association Heartsaver First Aid and CPR with AED qualifies for this legal requirement.

Hands Only CPR: What is it?

Briefly, it is an easy to learn and easy to do initial response for sudden cardiac arrest (collapse with no breathing) that anyone can do. 

• AED Information for Staff
• Phillips Heart Start AED Video

• It is meant to bridge care until trained responders arrive. If you are not trained in doing full CPR, doing hands only may save a life when trained responders arrive soon after.

• It does NOT take the place of CPR certification.

• Breaths are still part of CPR and especially needed when breathing difficulty preceded the collapse or collapse is sustained.

• Hands Only Demonstration Video

Course Information

MCPS: The district offers American Heart Association “Heart Saver” First Aid and CPR with AED 6 hour courses generally done in two evenings.

• This course is designed for the “lay” provider and not the professional medical rescuer. This course is the best option for most school staff.

• You can sign up for these classes on the Professional Development website. 

• For complete dates, see this schedule.

These classes are free to district employees.  

• Adult Education

• Missoula Fire Department

• On-Line: For those staff who have taken CPR classes previously, generally have confidence in their skills and prefer or need the option to take most of the course on line, contact Brooke Krininger at bkrininger@mcpsmt.org for more information. In person practice and test out is required for certificate completion.

We all should take measures to limit the spread of common germs that spread colds, influenza and other communicable diseases at all times. While it is important to model and teach these measures, allowing students time to wash their hands is critically important. These measures are called “Non-pharmaceutical interventions”.

Measures

Handwashing

This When and How to Wash Hands link is from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC).

CDC’s pages of “Show me the Science,” explain:

• Why wash your hands?
• How to wash your hands: The science for each recommended step.
• When and how to use hand sanitizer

Respiratory “Etiquette”

Respiratory etiquette are simply practices to limit the spread of germs when people DO cough, sneeze or blow their nose.

• Use a tissue to blow nose, cough, or sneeze into. Immediately throw away Kleenex into garbage then wash hands.
• If you do not have a tissue immediately available when coughing or sneezing, cough or sneeze into your sleeve (upper arm where clothing is covering) This directs the spray patterns of droplets that may contain germs into the fiber of your clothes rather than out in the air where the germs can more readily infect other people.

Social Distancing

Social distancing simply means increasing the distance between the person who may be ill and those who are not.

• Stay at least three feet away from others if you have a cold.
• Stay home when sick.
  • Anytime you feel too sick with fever, cough, or other cold or flu symptoms to function well at work or school, stay home!
  • Know that the health department may require schools to exclude staff and students for actual or possible symptoms of a communicable disease during times of disease outbreaks.

Don't Touch Your Face

A person gets sick when they touch something that is contaminated with germs and then touch their eyes, nose, or mouth.

The T-zone — eyes, nose and mouth — is the main portal of entry for viral infections such as influenza, colds and pneumonia, as well as bacterial infections including strep throat, tuberculosis or tonsillitis.

And because we may touch our faces multiple times every waking hour — rubbing our eyes, scratching a nose or biting a ragged cuticle — we risk infection from any germs our hands come into contact with.

Disinfecting

Wipe commonly touched surfaces with disinfecting wipes or sprays.

Resources

Handwashing and Hand Sanitizer Use Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Handout

Classroom Education and Training:  Centers for Disease Control

What does school staff need to know?

We often think of vaccines and vaccine preventable disease outbreaks as a student issue. But staff as well as students would be exposed to measles if a contagious person enters a school building.

Students are required to have proof of immunization for school attendance unless they have a valid exemption. Not only does Missoula County Public Schools not have a high rate of student exemptions, but we can readily identify which students are exempt and exclude them in the case of an outbreak of measles.

The concern with measles is that it is highly contagious. Should an exposure occur, the Missoula City-County Health Department would order that ANY person who was exposed and does not have valid proof of immunity would be excluded from work or school for 21 days after the onset of rash in the last case of measles.

MCPS is encouraging staff born on or after January 1^st, 1957 to obtain documentation of measles immunity and provide it to the school.

The current goal is to collect documentation of staff immunity on a volunteer basis to facilitate a timely and effective response in the event of an outbreak. 

Click here for detailed and important information about measles.

Are you a staff member who is interested in being part of your schools MERT? Perhaps you have already volunteered to be a First Aid Provider and need to complete on line training prior to the annual meeting/training session. Perhaps you want more information. You have come to the right place!

The purpose of a MERT team is to provide a coordinated response in the event of a life threatening medical emergency for students, staff, and visitors.  The MERT members are various school staff who meet at least annually for training and review coordination of roles. For more information, see these Medical Emergency Response Team Guidelines.

The MERT First Aid Providers are school staff members that keep a cool head in an emergency and have taken a First Aid and CPR class. Because emergencies can happen at any time, it is best for the First Aid Providers to have the ability to respond quickly.

Training

ALL current and future MERT members do the following before the annual training and coordination meeting. 

• Review the Medical Emergency Response Team Guidelines. (all members)

Current and future MERT First Aid Providers do the following before the annual training and coordination meeting. 

• MERT On line training.
• Other: the school nurse may direct you to additional training prior to the annual meeting dependent upon student needs at your school

While not all allergies are serious enough to impact a student frequently or severely, some students with allergies need support and accommodations to reduce the likelihood of a reaction and to be prepared to treat a life threatening reaction should one occur.  In early 2015, Missoula County Public Schools implemented comprehensive procedures for this purpose.  You will find those procedures and related toolkit forms and resources for staff on this page.  It is important that all staff who work with our students to be familiar with the procedures.

Asthma is a very common condition in children and virtually all teachers or other school staff have students who have asthma.  Please familiarize yourself with how to help a student who is having breathing difficulty.

"The Standard First Aid for Asthma" outlines what to do for an asthma episode or "attack" and also explains how an inhaler is used.

As part of a School Health Initiative, the Montana DPHHS has additional information and links about asthma as well regarding on-line training designed for teachers and coaches.  

Diabetes is a health condition that is increasing in frequency thus most teachers and other staff will have at least one student at some point that has diabetes.  Thank you for taking the time to learn how you can help your student!

While there are several types and sub types of diabetes, the most common types are Type 1, Type 2 and gestational (during pregnancy).  All three types are increasing in frequency.

Type 2 is perhaps the most well-known and it is the most common type.  90-95% of people who have diabetes in the United States have this type of diabetes.  It used to be called "adult onset diabetes" but can and does occur at much younger ages.  It is primarily a metabolic condition of increasing insulin resistance where the body doesn't use insulin as efficiently.  Factors associated with this type of diabetes include poor diet and inactivity BUT it is also important to remember that genetics play a large role as well.  The American Diabetes Association is a good resource of information about Type 2 diabetes.

Type 1 diabetes is an auto-immune disease in which the insulin producing sells of the pancreas are destroyed.  The body doesn't produce enough or any insulin at all.  It used to be called "juvenile onset diabetes" but people of all ages may develop this although more commonly the onset is during childhood or early adulthood.  All people with Type 1 diabetes need to take injectable insulin to live.  This is the most common type of diabetes in our students with an approximate one Missoula student affected in every 225 students. 

Concussions can occur in students from incidents at school, school sports, and sports outside of school or other accidents such as a car or biking crashes.

It is likely teachers and other school staff will encounter a student who is recovering from a concussion.  A student who initially rests and then does a step wise return to learning and activities while monitoring for symptoms may recover faster and more completely.  Since 90% of students will be symptom free within 3 weeks, they would not typically have or need a 504 accommodation plan.  School staff are instrumental in facilitating initial adaptations to facilitate a student's recovery and return to learning.

The Epilepsy Foundation defines a seizure as a “sudden surge of electrical activity in the brain that usually affects how a person appears or acts for a short time.” Most people think of a seizure as a convulsion, which is a tonic clonic seizure. However, there are many types of seizures and the categories and names of seizure types have been recently revised.

The Epilepsy Foundation notes, “1 IN 26 people in the United States will develop epilepsy at some point in their lifetime.” In addition, “9% of people will have at least one seizure in their lifetime” according to the Minnesota Epilepsy Group. Therefore, it is very possible that most people will need to know how to respond to a person who is having a seizure.

Tonic clonic or convulsive seizures, generally considered an emergency, require 911 activation when it occurs in a person for the first time. To learn more, see the First Aid for Tonic Clonic Seizures below. 

It is common for teachers to have a student with a diagnosed seizure disorder (epilepsy). Many of these students will have an Emergency Care Plan that will specify what a seizure emergency is for that student and specific actions to take. Follow the Emergency Care Plan and ask the school nurse if you need additional training or information. 

Resources

Epilepsy Foundation

First Aid for Tonic Clonic Seizures Handount

Video First Aid for Tonic Clonic Seizures