School nurse job description

[Ellen aka Snow White]

What do you understand a school nurse's job description to be?

My dd came home feeling bad yesterday - about in tears - and I asked her why didn't she go to the health room. Her teacher told her that our nurse was there only to give out prescribed medicine and for emergencies! So now the sick children stay in class all day spreading their germs!

When I take my other dd to school this morning I will be going into the office about this!

 

[Megan's Mom]

I'm sorry but that is about what a nurses job is these days. Only trained personnel can pass out meds and with so many children on some kind of meds it is almost a full time job. I don't know if you have a nurses office or not but I know at our school the nurse basicly has a cubbiehole and then goes to the office to pass out the meds. So they probably dont' want to leave a child unattended especially if they are sick. Our nurse isn't there all day everyday she serves three schools that are very close together.

 

[Lorix2]

Sorry you're DD is feeling sick

Our school nurse's office has a place for sick kids and also has the kids lay down if they are feeling nauseous/headache, takes temps and always calls to let the parent know what's going on.

This is elementary and the middle school.

 

[Tinkerbelle'sMOM]

Why didn't the teacher have her call home and go home if she felt sick? In these days and times school nursing has changed dramatically from the nurses of past. There usually isn't a place for the kids and the school nurse is for the district. They seem to do more paperwork than ever...keeping up and calling on kids that don't have immunizations, etc, following up on public health problems and reportable illness (ie chickenpox outbreaks, lice, etc). They also have to be available to the kids with multiple complex health problems whom are mainstreamed into the schools.

Actually, it isn't the nurses that pass meds, it can be a secretary...I totally don't agree with this..they aren't a licensed practitioner and if they gave the wrong med to the wrong kid..well, I think we all know where that would end up.

School systems need more school nurses! I would have to say that the teacher should have sent her home!

 

[jx3smom]

Our schools have full time nurses with an office where kids can lie down if they are ill, get meds, get some health exams, etc.

 

[pirateofthecarolinas]

I think you should ask the teacher why she didn't call you to come get your daughter. Let her know that you want to be called when your daughter doesn't feel well.

I have never worked at nor have my children attended a school with a school nurse. Volunteer parents man the sick room.

Sorry your daughter is sick!

Lori

 

[DawnCt1]

Originally posted by Tinkerbelle'sMOM
Why didn't the teacher have her call home and go home if she felt sick? In these days and times school nursing has changed dramatically from the nurses of past. There usually isn't a place for the kids and the school nurse is for the district. They seem to do more paperwork than ever...keeping up and calling on kids that don't have immunizations, etc, following up on public health problems and reportable illness (ie chickenpox outbreaks, lice, etc). They also have to be available to the kids with multiple complex health problems whom are mainstreamed into the schools.

Actually, it isn't the nurses that pass meds, it can be a secretary...I totally don't agree with this..they aren't a licensed practitioner and if they gave the wrong med to the wrong kid..well, I think we all know where that would end up.

School systems need more school nurses! I would have to say that the teacher should have sent her home!

I agree with everything you said. My SIL is a school nurse and I wouldn't want her job. For $28K per year, in a school system where new teachers start out at $44 K, she has enormous responsibility. She also has a B.S. There are children not only with complex medical problems, but psych problems, IEP's that must be followed, sports physicals to review, immunizations and physicals that must be reviewed and then the time consuming business of calling parents to update these things, waiting for call backs, etc. Every little health concern has to be investigated thoroughly. One day the entire school was evacuated because a boy brought in two glass thermometers from home and dropped them. MERCURY WAS LOOSE IN THE SCHOOL CORRIDOR. A hazardous waste disposal team had to come do the clean up. and air quality samples had to be run. Heck I remember when I was a kid abd played with the stuff. School nursing must be a labor of love because these days you could work anywhere else, half the time and make as much money.

 

[mommytutu]

Our school just got a brand new nurse's station. The room is about as big as a classroom. And yes, sick kids go in there. And they call me to let me know if my kid has a temp of 99.0 or higher and do I want to come get him. They call to let me know if his tummy hurts. They are VERY attentive at this school....more so then most schools I think.

 

[disneysnowflake]

I volunteer in our school's nurse's office. It's a very hectic place.

There is one nurse for 1200 students.

There is never a time when there aren't at least 5 kids in the nurse's office waiting to be seen (in addition to the ones that are already there). The paperwork involved in the nurse's office is ridiculous. If one child comes to the nurse for anything it must be logged twice on computer and once on paper. If there is an accident like at gym class there is even more paperwork. If one student comes to the nurse looking for a cough drop she still has to make a log and all the paperwork just for that one student.

Our nurse is required to dispense daily medication (like ritalin and such). From 11am to 1pm there is a constant line of kids waiting for their meds. Plus she has to give kids their inhalers. No one but the nurse is allowed to touch any medication.

Our nurse is required to change the catheters of 3 students in the special needs classes daily.

She's required to do heights and weights on each child each year. That takes an entire week just to get all 1200 students weighed and measured in between treating sick kids and all that other stuff. She's also required to give eye chart exams and give eye doctor referrals each year, plus there are hearing exams for all the kids, scoliosis screenings for certain grades, and physicals. Each time she does an eye exam that has to be logged on one sheet, on the computer and again in the child's main folder. Before I started volunteering the nurse was taking the charts home each night to try to get her work done. She's also required to check each student for lice. If one child gets lice then the entire classroom has to be checked by the nurse once when the lice is found and again later.

The phone rings constantly in her office. It's either administration needing records on someone or a parent who needs to ask or know something.

There are only 5 cots in the nurse's office for sick kids. The school knows that there should be more room for the nurse, but she's at the bottom of the priority list.

Our nurse sent notes to teachers asking them to not send students to her unless they are truly sick or if they are injured. So many times you'll see kids come in who didn't get enough sleep the night before and just want to lay down.

Sometimes it's not good that teachers don't allow the kids to go to the nurse though. Last year my son was very sick. The teacher did send him to the nurse, but the nurse was too busy. She sent him back to class without even taking him temp. No one notified me. When he got off the bus he was so sick. I took his temp and it was 103 (he was feeling great when he left for school). He ended up with strept.

I volunteer one full day each week and 2 half days each week. I am always busy when I volunteer there. On the weeks where we have eye exams, heights/weights, ear exams, etc. I can volunteer all day all week. It's crazy.


I do understand why you were upset though.

 

[DawnCt1]

Originally posted by disneysnowflake
I volunteer in our school's nurse's office. It's a very hectic place.

There is one nurse for 1200 students.

.

Wow DSF. You couldn't pay me enough to do that job! You are truly a wonderful person to volunteer. They should pay you and make you a school health aid.

 

[year2late]

Originally posted by Ellen aka Snow White
My dd came home feeling bad yesterday - about in tears - and I asked her why didn't she go to the health room. Her teacher told her that our nurse was there only to give out prescribed medicine and for emergencies! So now the sick children stay in class all day spreading their germs!

It would be the teacher's job to tell you to come home and pick up your sick child. It is not the school's responsibility to give room and board to sick children.

 

[DawnCt1]

Originally posted by year2late
It would be the teacher's job to tell you to come home and pick up your sick child. It is not the school's responsibility to give room and board to sick children.

Amen! My SIL notes a lack of common sense among some of the class room teachers that at times seems overwhelming. School nurses are greatly under paid for what they do and the level of responsibility that they must assume.

 

[KristaTX]

Originally posted by Ellen aka Snow White
Her teacher told her that our nurse was there only to give out prescribed medicine and for emergencies! So now the sick children stay in class all day spreading their germs!

I spent 7 years as a full-time school nurse, and I still subsitute several times a month for school nurses. I don't think any RN working in a school would have the attitude that his/her job does NOT involve seeing sick students. If he/she is indeed too busy to see sick students, then the parents need to push for the district to have a better nurse:student ratio.

Perhaps the teacher made a mistake and didn't believe your daughter . Sometimes teachers will do their best to keep kids in class unless the student asks twice or unless it is completely obvious to them that the student is feeling badly (appearance, performance, behavior, etc.). Also, and I'm not saying that your daughter does this, some students "cry wolf" so often that the teacher does not know when to believe them.

So what did the office say when you asked them about yesterday's situation?

 

[KristaTX]

Originally posted by DawnCt1
My SIL is a school nurse and I wouldn't want her job. For $28K per year, in a school system where new teachers start out at $44 K, she has enormous responsibility. She also has a B.S.

I feel badly for your SIL. In the 3 districts that I have worked for here in Texas, nurses are on the same pay scale as teachers.

 

[Pop Daddy]

school nurses are sexy

 

[KristaTX]

Thanks, PD

 

[DawnCt1]

Originally posted by Pop Daddy
school nurses are sexy

You haven't seen my SIL.

 

[year2late]

I have got one more bug up my behind on this one. I was volunteering at my son's school and the school nurse was trying to get a sick kid home. First of all the kid came to school sick - fever and totally drained. The nurse was told that nobody could pick her up for 3 hours. The nurse asked if one of the emergency contacts could pick her up - apparently they all work too.

School is not daycare. I am disgusted that a parent would list emergency contacts with no ability to pick the child up. Sometimes a parent needs to make a decison to make less money and drive a crappier car, stay in economy hotels rather than concierge in order to have the flexibility to take proper care of their young children. I work as a nurse myself, and it would be impossible to run off at the drop of a hat, but I sure as hell have legitimate emergency contacts.

I stayed with that child (so the school nurse could do her duties) This meant that my usual volunteer duties went down the toilet. Mama shows up 3 hours later with a Starbucks in hand and harrasses the principal.

Our priorities are skewed.


(this is not meant to indicate this was the situation of the OP - I just needed to vent!!)

 

[KristaTX]

AMEN, year2late! I don't know how many days I have spent holding my breath and washing my hands over and over because some kid's parent leaves their poor sick child at school to be "babysat" .

 

[SC Minnie]

Our schools have 1 nurse for about 500 childern -k-5. She has her own office area with a restroom and a cot/bed for kids to lay down if they don't feel well. They will call parents if a child is not feeling well. She has called me once to ask if it was OK to give DD tylenol for a headache. Our district was rumbling about a year ago to eliminate the nurses positions to save money. I think they realized how crazy that was.