Catasauqua Area School District nurses Donna Tercha and Carla Wolbach, along with other area school nurses met Aug 15 and 16 at Lehigh Career & Technical Institute for their yearly school nurse's conference.

Tercha, who is chairperson of the Lehigh County School Nurses Advisory Board and coordinates the efforts of the committee, said the purpose of the conference was to provide a quality educational experience for school nurses.

"School nursing is a specialty within the field of nursing, and there are many topics that each of us must remain current on," Tercha said.

Topics covered during the conference were selected by the board, Tercha said. Some of this year's topics included cyberbullying, exercise-induced bronchospasm, playground and sports injuries, concussions and brain injury. These topics were presented by a number of speakers.

The benefits to the school district of planning and attending the conference are far reaching.

"We are both learning from each session that we attend, and staying current with the trends in school health makes us more effective in our relations with CASD's students, parents and staff," said Tercha.

While Tercha said the topics covered this year have not changed dramatically from past years, she emphasized school nurses must still keep abreast on current topics and issues.

"Students are coming to school and we must recognize each one as a person with not only academic needs, but perhaps with medical, social and emotional needs," she said. "It is important for school nurses to remain current in order to remain effective."

Tercha recognized LCTI for donating the use of their facilities, administration, technical, food service and custodial staff for the conference.