Data Collection Process at schools

[SNWrKnHard]

I am the only school nurse at my school w/ 1 assistant to 850 students and 200 staff at the high school level (9-12).

I have begun using school nurse software (Student Health Manager) and now have a problem that I had not anticipated.

Entering all the information from my annual Health Questionnaire into the database is VERY TIME CONSUMING AND MONOTONOUS. My assistants role is deteriorating into that of data entry person and I need her for many other things.

HELP!!

I am trying to think outside the box here and am begining to wonder if all this (usually redundant) information needs to becollected annually.

I am considering a 1 time form and them a follow up annual letter/miniform as a reminder for those that need to update information periodically.

However, I want to be careful that I am not implementing something that I will regret later....

Did you faced this issue when you went online?

Do you feel strongly about how often this data should be collected?

Any ideas, thoughts, advice regarding this matter will be greatly appetiated.

[bergren]

Definitely talk to the vendor in Marshalltown. They can give you some advice and put you into contact with others in your area using their product. Also, many software vendors put together user groups so that school nurses can collaborate on software issues.

Ask them specifically if there is a way to have the parents fill out the annual health information on a scantron (bubble) sheet and then have it fed into the computer.

Also, most school nurses when initiating a program for the first time do not attempt to enter the entire school at once. They pick a entry grade (depending on the ages served) and then start with that grade only with data entry. So for the first year, the data is entered for K students, then the next year, k only again (2 grades online), K again the next year (three grades)...

Another idea is working with a local nursing school to see if nursing students are interested in helping you for credit.