Feeling inadequate, what about you??

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I am just curious how many out there are district health coordinators and a school nurse at the same time. I got this job last year in December but I worked at the same school system before from 2010 to 2012, and we worked under the health department then. Now I am hired by the school district.

I am the nurse for both the Middle and High School, which has 950 students total. There is a nurse at each elementary school one with 200 students, and one with 500 students. I do not have a health assistant or a secretary, I have to do absolutely everything on my own. I am also the health coordinator and have those duties as well as the school nurse duties and I feel so overwhelmed. At the middle school I have 14 students with daily meds and/or chronic health care needs which often involve more visits and a lot more monitoring, but they send kids for every little thing and I see 35 to 40 students a day most of the time just at that school. I am at the High School from when school starts until 1030 or 11, so that many students come most of the time in that time frame as well.

I feel like I can't adequately take care of the students that really need to be there, and then I am expected to monitor staff compliance with medication teaching, advising for all the health conditions in the districts, wellness committees, organizing staff health prevention measures and student as well, and many others which I am not going to name one by one. I have voiced my concern to the principal at the middle school, the dpp. I have given guidelines for when students should come down, I have implemented passes, everything that I can think of, and it is not working. Not to mention that at the Middle school I was still having to put consents together and learn about new conditions I need to be aware of because they had not all came to me until 2 weeks ago, a month after school started, and then you have to send home careplans, identify them, and send home all necessary paperwork, and so on and so on.

I guess I just want to know if anyone else is out there in the same position or has been and if you have any advice or strategies that you have used that have worked in the past or are working. Maybe it will get better once I have all of what I consider are the most important duties which are careplans and figuring out what needs to be done for the students to be safe and secure, or I need to just realize that maybe I am just not cut out for it, and maybe I need to do them a favor and have them find someone better. I worked on a med surgical floor for 12 years and it was often extremely busy and overwhelming, but I was able to do my job effectively and get what needed to be done and felt satisfied with my accomplishments and felt I did my job well, and we had to work alone a lot too, but I feel like either I am not cut out for this, or maybe some others on here feel like I do and maybe I am doing the best I can and just need to be satisfied with that. I was often bragged about on the med surgical floor about my time management skills as well, so I don't feel like that is the problem. Any thoughts or advice would be greatly appreciated.

It is a huge transition from hospital to school nurse. And although most days at school don't have crash and burn emergencies being the only medical person gives me huge stress. I had emergencies all the time at my hospital job, which gave me stress also but there were always nurses around to help in a true emergency. I am always afraid that I've missed a form, care plan, emergency med etc.. but I am just trying to take it day by day. I read some posts from the SN forum and they feel less stress than when they were in the hospital. I just feel my stress is different. I am in a busy middle school where some kids may not get everything they need at home, and I feel mental health is a huge issue. I'm still deciding if it is a fit for me too!

Specializes in Gyn Onc, OB, L&D, HH/Hospice/Palliative.

I'm new and feel the same way. I think I made a huge mistake. Not liking it at all, to put it mildly.

I am so glad to see somebody else feels the way I do. I kept reading about how the summers off and less stress was better, and that they liked it better and I was wondering what I was doing wrong. It sounds like we are in the same boat, and I feel like I am really taken advantage of all around most of the time. Sadly enough I feel the stress is equal because their has been a huge increase in chronically ill kids just from when I started the end of the year to the beginning of this year, and you cannot explain how unsafe you feel it is to anyone around you, because they think strictly education. Nobody thinks like you, and it seems like if you aren't contributing to education they could care less. I try to stay positive because I am actually a very positive person, but I have so many things backfire and seem like it is going against me that it is hard. I hope things get better for you.

Specializes in School nursing.

I felt the same way when I was new. I think a lot of school nurses do, even when you do have access to a resource or two. Just like the hospital, you find your grove. It is just a different grove. Being a school nurse has built my creativity, communication skills, ability to stay calm, patience, and most importantly, my confidence.

Though I will say, a lot of other nurses I've met don't understand what I do and think it is easy. A good friend of mine agreed to sub for me. She works days and nights on a busy med-surg floor. She expected my job to be easy. She was very wrong and told me so, gaining a new understanding and telling me how tired she was at the end of the day. How she was questioning her assessment skills when it was just her. She found her grove as a regular sub when I needed her and grew to love it. She still subs for me :).

Thank you that makes me a little bit more optimistic. Like I said I have worked in it before but I was only a school nurse for one school I didn't have to schools and health coordinator position so maybe it's just that all of that is new. Thanks again

Specializes in Med-Surg, Oncology, School Nursing, OB.

SN34 I do not understand how they can expect you to do TWO jobs. No wonder you're overwhelmed! Have they always done it that way? I'd start keeping track of the number of kids you see, how long the visits are, how much time everything that's required that takes just as a school nurse. I bet that adds up to a full day. Take those numbers to the top and say here's how much time it takes to do a school nurse job. Now we either need to hire another person or come up with a solution to give me time to do the health coordinator job (figure up those hours too.) Maybe they would be willing to let you train the secretary or some aides to take care of basic first aide, medication administration, etc and just be on call a couple days a week to work on your other job. Our board of education pays 2 trained personnel a small stipend each year to be trained to help in case I'm not there and I'm there full time. I'm covered for my lunch, meetings, etc. It's nice! You may need to consider finding another job if no one is willing to work with you on this.

We had a nurse come from ICU who said school nursing was just too hard trying to navigate all we do with such little support. There's so much social type work and yes even mental health to this job.

I did leave school nursing a couple times. I was working med surge and thought this is so nice to not have kids constantly bugging me over silly stuff all day long. It was also nice if a patient had a headache, stomachache, etc I could actually treat them with something besides an ice pack and saltines! I loved getting to use so many technical procedural type skills. I loved having more days off a week and the pay was nice! I left because my kids hated me being gone many evenings and holidays plus it was getting hard on my knees. Also, I felt like the hospital just didn't care if we were constantly understaffed putting me and my patients at risk. So I found a good school and I like it but I would be lying if I don't occasionally browse the want ads! However, the longer I do it the easier it gets and the more I start to feel at home.

That's a lot of responsibility. I worked in a school of 520 kids ages 3-9. I was completely overwhelmed. I had 30-40 visits a day. Lot of meds, chronic illnesses, etc. I was supposed to get into the classroom to teach as well. I kept asking for help but my manager, the Director of Special Services, simply gave me a snooty answer, "I'm busy too." Well, she was busy making $140,000. Since I only made about 1/3 of that, I'm not sure why she expected that I shouldn't be asking for help.

In a brilliant managerial move, she wrote up my final evaluation citing everything I asked for help on as "something I was doing wrong." She also criticized me for not being able to control a lice outbreak (8 kids in a school of 520). Somehow, that was my fault! I posted about it months ago here on this forum. :wacky: Oh, and I questioned a prn order for albuterol that a mother wanted given daily. Her son had asthma and "controlled" it with daily albuterol (Not budesonide). Did I mention the kid had surgery for coarctation of the aorta when he was a baby? But my manager (not a nurse) did not feel that I had a right to question the mother's insistence that I take a prn order for albuterol and give it daily (since that's how mom wanted it done).

They just hired their 7th nurse in 10 years. But somehow, it's the nurses that are a problem. It's not the job.

I wish I had some advice. :(

I chart under everyone I talk to, and i always email and I print the email about the entire conversation so if things are lied about, I have proof. I don't see how they can dispute the charting, especially if it is where they cannot delete it. As far as emails, you can prove you addressed it earlier, and then their accusations to me look more like lies. I would say though, hiring 7 NURSES in 10 years speaks for itslelf! I am sorry this happened to you, and honestly I have been worried it will happen to me. The thing is, it seems that no matter what we address or do right somehow NURSES are the ones that get short changed in that area.

It's all documented. Sadly, they really don't understand the scope and practice of nurses. It was a hard school to work in. They tried getting one of the other nurses in district to take the school. They all refused. I can't blame them!

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