College nurses may be done making house calls.

Administrators changed the college’s first responders policy last spring, but did not inform employees until September.

In the meantime, the unannounced change in policy led to confusion and concern during the summer.

Psychology instructor Shannon Pagano was teaching her human sexuality course in June when student Aranda Rosario noticed a classmate in distress.

“Then all the sudden the girl behind me started having a seizure,” she said.

Pagano said one of her students ran to the nurse’s office.

Rosario said the police arrived without any medical assistance.

“Then the police showed up, but without the paramedics,” she said. “They were like ‘We’re here’ but it was like ‘Okay, so you didn’t bring the paramedics, so what’s the point?’”

SC’s PIO Officer Lillian Leopold said changes in the protocol occurred early in the spring semester. Health Services Director Brett Robertson said the changes were not announced until September.

“We just decided to notify the college early this (fall) semester, when everybody would come back and it was a new year, rather than right at the end of the school year when people are heading for the exits,” he said.

Robertson said the college used to send nurses to classrooms, but it was not a good practice because they are not trained to respond to emergencies.

Chief of Police Davis Nighswonger said he supported the move.

“Paramedics are first responders and police officers are first responders,” he said. “We are going to make an initial assessment and ask ‘Is this a life-threatening situation?’ If it is, then we need to take emergency life-saving medical measures, like CPR. If that is not the case, we make an assessment. For the most part, we are going to rely on the paramedics to come out.”

Pagano said she did not know about the changes made to medical emergency protocols.

“There was no global announcement that the nurses no longer come to classrooms,” she said. “I (was not) told until I was in the middle of a crisis.”

Rosario concurred.

“I was shocked because I had never experienced (an emergency like this),” she said. “I didn’t know that the nurse could not come into the room and it was something that was really, really eye opening.”

Pagano said the misunderstanding made her feel at the time that the college was not taking the seizing student’s situation seriously.

Leopold said SC was the only community college to send nurses to classrooms. She said when nurses assess medical emergencies and determine that paramedics are needed, it causes a delay in care.

Robertson concurred.

“If someone’s in a real emergency, every minute counts,” he said. “All of these factors come together into a decision that we needed to make about what was best for safety and responding quickly in emergencies.”

Robertson said students and employees should call extension 6691 or 911 in an emergency.