Anyone else have to fly solo

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Is anyone else here the only nurse for their entire district? And if so how do you schedule out your day? I currently do not have a schedule and I need some help.

I have a part time nurse that works 4 hours a day but she has never been a school nurse before so I have been training for the last month. A new full time nurse is supposed to be starting the second week in Sept but I am pretty sure she has never been a school nurse either. I am currently running from one school to the next at least once a day. And honestly I feel like I am drowning. We have close to 3500 students in our district. I have sent out all the health plans and those are trickling back in daily. I have met with teachers about chronic kids. I am there for any uncovered BG/insulins. Thankfully at one school I have a parent and a teacher that will monitor my diabetics. But at one school I am the only one to do it. I give all the meds at one elementary school. And I am currently working on about 600 vision screenings that have to be done within the next week. Any guidance would be great.

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I am the only nurse for my district. I'm in my 3rd year here and I have 2 schools and approx 800 students PK-8th grade. This school year is the first year where I actually feel like I can do this!

I am responsible for maintaining compliance with physical, immunization, dental, and eye exam records, as well as hearing and vision, IHPs/emergency action plans, IEPs, staff training, etc for the entire district.

My office is at the middle school where I also serve as the building nurse. I'm over here because it is quieter and it enables me to perform my district wide duties quicker and more efficiently. I drive over to the elementary school for a few hours a week, am available via phone for IEPs (unless it is a medically extensive case, then I physically go to the meeting). I also take a straight week or two over there for hearing and vision...my district will then get a sub nurse to stay at the middle school when I am there.

I have an incredible health aid who takes care of the students at the elementary school. She had worked in schools prior to here, but didn't have much training in the health office. There is no way I could do my job successfully without her.

I'm not going to lie, the first 2 years were rough, trying to get a routine in order, trial and error to see what works, what doesn't work, etc.

Once the new nurses come on, keep an open line of communication. We are CONSTANTLY either emailing or calling back and forth throughout the day.

Once they are hired on and trained, are you all going to have your own school to manage? If that's the case, then train them well and be available for questions. If not, then come up with a list of all that needs to be done and try to divy everything up, that way not one person is taking on a larger load. Fortunate for you that you have nurses coming on and you can do that!

I have a "task" schedule for the school year broken down by what needs to be done every month and it is my guiding force. Sometimes we get so caught up with the day to day tasks, we loose sight of the bigger picture. This helps bring me back down if I get overwhelmed. I am a huge visual person, so I also have spreadsheets for EVERYTHING...compliance, IHPs, IEPs, hearing and vision, medical conditions. They take a while to get up and running and organized, but after they are, boy, does it help keep me organized!

Good luck and know that you're not alone!!!!

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Specializes in Telemetry, Gastroenterology, School Nrs.

I am the only nurse for our District, K-12, which serves around 1800 students. I do not have health aides or helpers of any kind. I have been instructed to stay at our K-2 building from 745-2, unless there is an emergency at one of the other buildings. I do travel to one of the buildings everyday to help with insulin, but then go back. I get ~45 minutes each at the other buildings to try and accomplish everything that needs to be done.

Fortunately, this year, I am able to get some local nursing students in to help me with screenings, but even with that it is very overwhelming.

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I do feel better knowing I am not the only one. I do not have health aides. I am supposed to be stationed on one campus. That is PK-12th. All different buildings and lots of walking. I am on the other end of the county as the other larger campus about 30 min away. Once she starts she will be stationed at that school and I will be able to stay at this school. Yes I will make sure I keep open lines of communication. That was one thing I did not have with the previous nurse. I am primarily for the elementary school and only to respond to emergencies. But in the going on 4 years I have worked here I have realized they do not understand what makes for a medical emergency. So basically I get called everywhere on campus for any medical need or concern. It gets frustrating trying to get IHPs done, meetings, and screenings ect done when you are being called to another school for "bug bites".

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I'm the only one for my district as well, no aides. We have 3 campuses in 3 different cities. My "home" campus is 1 hour away from each of my other campuses in opposite directions. I do not travel to all 3 campuses everyday. It would be impossible. I am, however, in constant contact with them and this year, since I got bumped from part time to "full time" (I get 30 hrs/week now!), I plan on trying to be on my other 2 campuses at least every other week. We'll see if I can make it happen! We're a small charter with about 750 students district wide which sounds better than those that have 1000+! It takes a lot of coordination and communication to keep things under control from a health perspective though. I do have help with screenings from the local nursing program which is AMAZING. I wouldn't get them done if I didn't have their help. I'd love an aid though.....maybe one day...

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Hats off to all of you! I can't imagine. Here I am in my K-3 school with 488 kids and it is still overwhelming and busy. Next year I am K-8 with >1000 kids and I already panic thinking about it, LOL

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Specializes in Home Health,Dialysis, MDS, School Nurse.

I am the only nurse in my district, but that only includes one school, so no traveling around. Its PreK - 12 and has about 650 kids.

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Specializes in Pediatric.

I am the only nurse in our district as well. PK-12. We have 2 buildings. PK-6 and 7-12. Roughly 850 student total.

This is my 2nd year as a school nurse and my first year all by myself. The first few days I will not lie were a tad overwhelming for me.

I am a very organized person and it literally drove me crazy not having time to get things done. I finally caught up today.

I spend from 730-1100 and 1230-1530 in my lower building office. 1100-1230 in the upper building.

I do work with a wonderful bunch of people who help when they can. Upper building has a Secretary that will pass meds if I'm not there. Tylenol and such.

I am on constant on call basis. I have a district cell phone they can reach me on if they don't get me in either office.

I have had very little downtime but it keeps me going.

Here's to hoping you great year!!!

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I work for a school district with 24 schools and 14,000 kids. There are only 2 nurses. It's my first year as a school nurse so I do feel a bit overwhelmed since I have 11 school sites I'm responsible for. But I am very fortunate that the other nurse has been slowly guiding me and we have 3 health techs who are AMAZING and really help us out a lot.

I like the workflow, being out and about without having someone watch over what I'm doing, and being able to go about my day how I like.

For our mass hearing/vision screenings we are bringing in retired school nurses and student nurses from the nearby college to help us out. Maybe this could be an option for you?

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