River View schools receive Heart Safe School Accreditation
WARSAW – The SADS Foundation recently approved all of River View Local School District’s buildings for Heart Safe School Accreditation
River View Local School District is only the fourth school district in the country to have all schools within the district accredited. The SADS Foundation commended the district for: Level of professionalism and thoroughness of your applications; Number of staff trained in CPR; Defined plan to continue the process for the future; Utilization of a drill summary checklist for process improvement; Outstanding drill submissions with very engaged and focused staff and students.
To recognize the achievement, the SADS Foundation will provide a certificate of accreditation as well as a banner for each school.
The concept of River View becoming an Accredited Heart Safe School arose about two years ago with Shelley McPeek, RN, School Nurse for River View Local School District’s affiliation with Genesis in Zanesville and after she attended an Ohio Association of School Nurses conference.
“In addition to being the school nurse at River View since 2000, I have worked in the CCU and in the Heart and Vascular Diagnostics Department at Genesis for the past 30 years,” said McPeek. “Seeing the impact of heart disease and the importance of being prepared for medical emergencies, I felt it was important for River View to be even more prepared in the event of a cardiac arrest. Being the only school nurse for River View’s 2,100 students and over 200 staff members in six different buildings, I obviously can only be in one place at a time. Therefore, it is very important that the staff in each of the buildings knows how to recognize an emergency and how to respond in the most effective way. I cannot say enough about the employees at River View and their willingness to learn how to deal with medical emergencies.”
Most all of the employees at River View, including bus drivers , custodians and maintenance, food service, para-professionals, teachers, secretaries and administrators participate in CPR/AED training every other year. In addition, all students in grades five through eight participate in CPR/AED training every other year and all students in high school must take CPR as part of their health curriculum. AEDs have been in all River View buildings since 2003.
The Heart Safe School Accreditation involves seven elements, many of which were already in place in the district, except for elements one, three and seven. River View Schools implemented all seven elements during this past school year. Element three required each building to conduct three emergency medical response drills. Staff who participated in these drills did an outstanding job in first recognizing the emergency, calling for help and implementing CPR and using the AED until advanced medical help arrived.
“We hope that cardiac arrest never happens in one of our schools but our staff is well prepared to care for the children, and adults, who are entrusted to us each day,” McPeek said.
Category: Education
