Today's teachers are truly the holders of our children's future and they are an integral part to the functioning of our society. Well today's teachers even go a step further than just teaching. They are now many times required to monitor the health of the children who have special health conditions. Many children in the classroom settings in today's educational system suffer from certain health conditions such as asthma that require monitoring and measuring their oxygen levels at all times. This can play out in the classroom setting especially during the recess. As the kids go out to play on the playground those children that have asthma really do not take into consideration that they have asthma and that physical exercise may cause them to have an asthma attack. The problem for the teachers who supervise these children on the playground is the fact that they also have no way of exactly telling if the child who is playing on the playground is getting enough oxygen.
So really the only way that the supervisors and the techers really know that a child with asthma is experiencing an asthma attack is when the child is actually having one. As such there was always a need for a very easy to use and portable device that can be utilized by the teachers while supervising the children to utilize to quickly measure the blood oxygen saturation of the child with asthma to determine with the individual is getting enough oxygen to prevent an asthma attack. Such a device is now available and is known as a pulse oximeter.
A pulse oximeter is a medical device that measures the pulse rate as well as the blood oxygen saturation of an individual The device is only a fraction of the size of a typical cell phone and thus it is extremely portable. It also is very accurate and instantly gives a reading of the oxygen saturation as well as pulse rate within seconds. The device was first introduced to teachers many years ago as a trial whereby the teachers were to have it in case a particular student with a special health condition required the monitoring of their health. However, now because of the affordability and the accuracy of these oximeter devices it is much more common for teachers to have such devices in order to monitor the health of their students. So going back to the playground and the child with asthma situation, if a teacher knows of a student that has asthma and it is recess time, then the teacher can easily carry a pulse oximeter with them and measure the child's oxygen levels during exercise. After that the teacher determine whether the child is getting enough oxygen and if not then the teacher can opt to have the child take a break or if the condition is very severe then send the child to the nurse and eventually to the hospital if necessary. The pulse oximeter device is very useful and also extremely affordable offering the best portability that a teacher would need to monitor the health of their students.
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