Advice please.....I have so much anxiety about this

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I am a school nurse and my district recently implemented a program that requires a crisis team at every school. This involves drills throughout the year that the nurse is responsible for. Being new to the district and school nursing I asked my boss for help. The majority of the nurses in our district were nervous about this as well. My boss proceeded to say "it's not rocket science" and "if I have to come help you then I have to help everyone." I reached out to some of the other nurses in the district to get their opinion because I was shocked that she would refuse helping on such an important matter. She just sent me an email demanding I stop all communication to other nurses and come to her only from now on. How could that even be ok? Peer support is so important to succeed and survive in nursing, especially as a new nurse. I need advice as to what you guys think and who to reach out to for guidance. There has to be something that is evidence based that supports the importance of having your peers to reach out to.

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Specializes in Case mgmt., rehab, (CRRN), LTC & psych.

Welcome to Allnurses.com! Your thread was moved to our School Nursing forum where it will be more likely to receive responses from other school nurses.

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Welcome donna88!

No wonder you are feeling anxious.

Is your "boss" an RN? Is she "in charge" of all the school nurses?

If a crisis drill is required by the district, they should have protocols for every type of crisis and distribute these to each school.

Have you checked with your building administrator?

Our school/district has protocols for lost students, intruders, fire, earthquakes etc and we practice/drill at scheduled times. (except for the lost students which just happens…)

You have found the right place for support as a school nurse!

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Specializes in Pediatrics Retired.

These procedures are things that are not generated by the school nurse but come from the district risk manager, safety officer, or whatever that person is called in your district. They must be uniform across the district; the same for every campus. This is not only the industry standard but common sense. You'll need to contact administration to inform your principal of their ignorance. Regardless, unless you have credentials in such safety training and procedures you would not even be qualified to construct such a thing.

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You come to us with ANYTHING, okay? We are here for you.

Like the others said, the Crisis/Lockdown situation (if I'm understanding correctly) is usually not the CALL of the school nurse. That being said, I am named as one of the in charge people- if the Principal/APs are not available then it falls to me and a teacher who was a decorated officer in the Marines.

We recently hired legit Security, and are installing bulletproof glass, locking doors, etc. We have cameras and panic buttons.

I would speak with your Principal and see what your responsibility is.

As far as your Lead Nurse, or whatever she is, she sounds like she has a problem. She MUST be available to you to help you. It's disrespectful to you and your students.

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You come to us with ANYTHING, okay? We are here for you.

Like the others said, the Crisis/Lockdown situation (if I'm understanding correctly) is usually not the CALL of the school nurse. That being said, I am named as one of the in charge people- if the Principal/APs are not available then it falls to me and a teacher who was a decorated officer in the Marines.

We recently hired legit Security, and are installing bulletproof glass, locking doors, etc. We have cameras and panic buttons.

I would speak with your Principal and see what your responsibility is.

As far as your Lead Nurse, or whatever she is, she sounds like she has a problem. She MUST be available to you to help you. It's disrespectful to you and your students.

Well, my admin at my school has been great in helping. But I still feel insecure about leading a drill like that as a newer nurse, especially being so unfamiliar with school policies and such. The thing that I am having the most issues with is the fact that my boss is trying to take away my right to reach out to my peers for support. That infuriates me. A previous post asked if she is an RN and yes she is. I am praying I don't look like an amateur trying to run a life saving drill. It is coming up. I will let you know how it goes. My boss told me it's not rocket science and to watch videos on it.

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Would hate to say anything um, unkind about a fellow RN, but in the case of your "boss", well, she is just nutzo! Best practice for all the students and staff in your district comes with open communication and coordination between all the nurses and ideally a competent nurse leader. Wonder what her pathology is?

This piece might give you a few hints and guidelines :

http://www.janetzilinski.org/pdf/AED%20emergency%20action%20plan.pdf

Hang out with this school nurse group and like Farawan said, feel free to ask anything. Between us we have been there, done that and are free with sharing.

Hugs!

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A lot depends on what kind of crisis we are talking about.

If medical, you should have specific policies in place. At my district we have a Health committee that writes policy.

If Behavioral. again we have policy written by our Crisis Intervention team. I am a member of that team, but I do not write policy. The team consists of the Principal, Psychologist, Sp. Ed teacher and Counselor.

As for other crisis teams, we also have an emergency response team that would respond to disasters, active shooter, etc. HuGE list for that team. We meet every few months. Again, policy written at District level.

"Drills" for a number of issues are held throughout the year, but are NOT under my jurisdiction. They follow set rules and policy written with guidelines from Federal agencies. (Homeland Security, FBI, etc.)

I hope you aren't expected to write and institute policy by yourself for any of these sorts of teams.

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I can understand why that would be concerning. Although most of us work alone, having a network we can contact is pretty important. Honestly, though, if she doesn't want you to reach out to other nurses, and only go to her, I would ask her why she's not helping you? I mean, I would think it, I probably wouldn't actually ask her, but then just keep e-mailing the other nurses in the district. Since, I'm not actually sure that you could get in trouble for that.

But, who is your boss? The lead nurse in your district? Do you have an HR you can contact just for back up? Can you ask the other nurse in your district (ha!)? Do you fall under any other areas that has contacts (where I am, we fall under public health through the state and I have contacts there)?

I'm not really sure what the best plan of action is, but everyone's here to support you while you figure it out!

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That's Farawhine. Not Farawan.

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Specializes in Pediatrics Retired.
That's Farawhine. Not Farawan.

FaraWINE

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FaraWINE

Shhhhh...

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