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Charlotte O'Connor
GIS School Nurse
13 McNally Street
Goshen, NY 10924
(845) 615-6525
Fax: (845) 615-6524
Email: coconnor@gcsny.org 

Forms

• Authorization For Administration of Medication in School*

*Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader to download and print. You can get a free copy from the Adobe web site.

THE NURSE’S CORNER by Charlotte O'Connor, GIS School Nurse

School nurse thanks community for its generosity

Dear Goshen Intermediate families and friends,

On behalf of the Youth Ending Hunger organization and all the students and faculty, I would like to thank you for the generous gifts that we have received following the Times Record-Herald article on the changing roles of the school nurse. I am truly overwhelmed as well as eternally grateful for your commitment to helping our children in need.

Full letter

Happy Fall GIS Parents and Students!

Did you know pumpkin seeds are a delicious and healthy fall treat? The pumpkin plant goes to great effort in producing and protecting its seed, filling each packet with high concentrations of vitamins, minerals, proteins and essential oils.

As part of our NYS standard based health curriculum followed at GIS , the students will be learning about nutrition this month. Carving pumpkins and toasting the seeds are a great family activity as well as a health lesson in itself that can be taught at home!

Since I was a little girl, my family and I would always toast our pumpkin seeds after we carved our jack-a-lanterns. I didn’t know what a great source of vitamins and other nutrients I was eating; I just thought I was eating a tasty treat (I had a very tricky Mom)! I found this great recipe that I thought our GIS  community might like to try. Toast or roast pumpkin seeds in your oven in no time at all. They can be salted or spiced to suit your palate. The shells are edible and are a good source of fiber. Use this method with other seeds such as acorn squash and butternut squash.

More information

Dear Goshen parents,

Fall is such a great time to get out of the house and really appreciate our beautiful region. It’s a wonderful time to spend quality time with our children, as well as exposed them to the great sunlight (Vitamin D) and promote healthy habits. In my reading, I came across this article I’d love to share with you. I hope you’ll enjoy it as much as I have. Happy trails!

Encouraging children to walk

The level of inactivity among children has rocketed in recent years, resulting in rising levels of obesity and the likelihood of serious health problems in adulthood. Making walking a regular part of children's everyday lives is a good way of counteracting this worrying trend, and they could still be reaping the benefits of a healthy, active lifestyle for many decades to come. The important thing is that walks need to be planned to suit the child's interests and abilities: don't expect them to enjoy walking or landscapes for their own sake in the way that many adults do.

For more information, click here.

Your child is sniffing, sneezing and complaining of a scratchy throat, but his temperature is normal….should you pack his lunch and send him off to school?

Parents make tough calls like that every day, often with little else to go on other then there gut instinct. Parents are “pretty clued in to their kids” and know when their child isn’t feeling well, says Marlin Kinne, a school nurse practitioner and school projects coordinator at the National Association of school nurses. “If, in their best judgment, the child is running a fever and has other symptoms, then it just seems prudent to give them a day at home resting (and to) give them extra fluids and keep an eye on them,” she says. Surely that’s what June Cleaver, the fictional television mom from the early 1960’s situation comedy “Leave it to Beaver” would have done, But in today’s dual –income society, few moms-or dads, for that matter-have the luxury of taking a day off from work to serve chicken soup to their ailing child.

For more information, click here. 

Sleep may be their missing link…

It's that time of year again, when the hazy-lazy days of summer suddenly comes to a close and big yellow school buses begin to lumber along neighborhood streets…….Bummer!!

FYI...Poll data released from the National Sleep Foundation earlier this year found that school-aged children average 9.5 hours of sleep a night, less than the recommended 10-11 hours for this age group. Findings show children who sleep less, are twice as likely to have the school call their parents about behavior problems. Hyperactivity, trouble concentrating or a short attention span may be signs that your child needs more sleep. When children get sufficient sleep, it enhances their ability to not only participate in, but to enjoy and even excel in academic, extracurricular, and community activities.

For more information, click here.