Description

My name is Kathleen Smith. I have been a paramedic and emergency room registered nurse for 12 years. I recently began a new career with the Artesia Public Schools as the high school and junior high nurse of around 1600 total students. I also became the American Heart Association CPR and AED Instructor for the entire Artesia Public School district. It quickly came to my attention at my high school, that we are lacking AEDs. I currently have one AED that is to cover my entire open campus of 6 different buildings. We also do not have an AED in our auditorium or school administration and training building, where the community uses and hosts many public events that can sometimes have close to 2000 people in attendance at one time. As I was placing a sticker in the window of my high school to notify that there is an AED in the main office in my nurse office, the secretary made a comment about how she “doesn’t even know how to turn it on.” My heart sank, and I knew I had a lot of work to do. I approached my director who is non- medical about the importance about multiple AEDs, however, because it is not a state law, they are unwilling to purchase more because of the strict school budget.