[MommyandRN]

I am interested in school nursing and was looking at my local school district's website. I looked at each elementary school's website and noticed that the same school nurse was listed for multiple schools. Sometimes it was listed as one name, School Nurse, with another name or two underneath as Staff Nurses. Sometimes there was only one name but this name was listed at a different school as well. So they have people that cover 3 schools.... how does that work?

[Jolie]

The nurse responsible for a particular school will check immunization records, do health screenings, prepare care plans, and provide teaching for that school. But s/he will not be physically present in the building all the time. In our district, each nurse covers 2-3 schools, meaning that s/he spends approximately 2 or 3 1/2 days in each building. Emergencies and medication administration are handled (not very well) by the secretary and teaching assistants at other times.

[MommyandRN]

Thanks for the info. That is sort of scary. When I send my kids to school I would like to think there would be a school nurse there, someone who is trained in CPR in the building at least.

I guess where there is more than one RN listed that means that those nurses are present in the school at least, when the main RN isn't there. Interesting!

[platinum_garb]

at my school, the RN is only present 3 days a week-mostly to do administrative duties. i, and LPN, am present 5 days a week for the medically fragile students. we have two campuses and i only work on one, so when the RN isnt on site, generally the contact parent or guardian is called if the problem isnt an emergency to see what they would like done. if it is an emergency, obviously, the paramedics would be called.

[luvschoolnursing]

Depending on what state you are in, it varies how many nurses you will have. In Pennsylvania, where I work, the ratio is 1 nurse for 1,500 students. If a district had 15 schools with 100 kids each (not likely, I know) there would still only have to be one nurse. Actually PA is a good state, many have no ratios at all with nurses responsible for thousands of students. Needless to say, this is not ideal. In my school I have about 1,000 students, but it is the only school I am responsible, so I'm really fortunate.