I am wondering do any of you handle the attendances, late arrival check-in, and early dismissal check-out? I am the only medical staff that works at my school campus. The RN doesn't come in. I work for a private school grades 1st- 12th with a total of 270 students. When I was hired last year the front office lady gave me the task of handling attendance because it was taking up a lot of her time (several hours a day) because about half of the teachers/specialist do not complete attendance, so she would have to call them all (about 30 people). Well, now since it's my job I am having a hard time finding the time to call the staff who hasn't completed their attendance because I see at least 15 students a day, one of my students has been having a lot of nonepileptic seizures lately, and I give 35 students medications throughout the day. Majority of my students who take meds I have go to them because my school does not want them missing class time to take meds - This means I am away from my desk a lot and that means I cannot sit down to make phone calls. I am also doing other things: inputting immunization records and other medical info provided by parents, documenting clinic visits and when meds are given, helping out with front office duties when I am at my desk - answering phone calls, helping people that are coming into the front office, and printing color copies for teachers.
Is completing attendance typically the RN, CNA, or MA job? If completing attendance is your job is it very time consuming for you too? Are your teachers failing to complete their attendance? Oh and our high school teachers have to take attendance every period not just 1st period, so my job is to go through every period to make sure they are completing it, which many of them forget most periods.
I have a few 7 - 12th graders who take their meds during lunch, they come to me. The younger kids that take their meds during lunch I go to them. I rather go to the younger kids during their lunch because it was more work to try to get them to come to me. They kept forgetting to come to me because all that was on their mind was food and time to play.
Taking care of all the medical issues in the school.
Do they consider you the school "nurse" (your post made it sound like you don't have an RN or LPN)? I am consider the "nurse"... Medical Assistant. (FYI - Staff, students, and parents are aware I am not an RN if whenever I am called nurse I correct them). I am currently working towards my RN.
Why doesn't the RN come in?
The RN is married to one of our admin staff. She never comes (besides training me) in and has a job in the hospital. We use her if we ever need her medical guidance because prior to me they didn't have anyone medical. Where I live there a medical professional (RN, LPN, CNA, and MA) is not required to be on staff at a school. I did a lot of research regarding the laws about an MA working at a school before accepting the job.
Have you been trained to do the things you are doing? Yes, I was trained by the RN and many of the things I do I have done for 10 years at my previous job.
The reason all of those matter to me is because it really sounds like you are doing two very separate jobs. What happens if you are on the phone with an angry parent who's kid has been tardy for the 100th time and the little one you mentioned begins to have a seizure? This hasn't happened yet but I am worried it may happen. The only thing I will be able to do is tell there is a medical emergency, so I will have to call you back.
What if while you are going to pass meds (which is crazy that they expect you to go to each class to do in my opinion) you have a parent come in who begins to ask you 100 questions and demand your time? I have had this happen several times, fortunately most of the parents know who I am and have been understanding and will wait for me or the front office manager. My goal is to give students topcare and they are my number one priority. If I need to attend to them I do not let a demanding person phase me. I just let them know in a professional way I need to see a student, please have a seat and someone will be able to help you shortly.
If you were hired to be the health person, that needs to be your focus. It doesn't hurt to help when you have time, but if they are leaning on you to track down both kids and adults all day long PLUS do all of the paperwork that is a part of the health office role AND be a friendly face in the front office, they are asking too much. I have taken it upon myself to only help with front office duties when I have time, there are days I don't have time. They haven't complained, so I am guessing they understand. What they do not understand is I am not the right person to be doing attendance.
We are fortunate to have a data clerk at each campus who is responsible for attendance among other things involving enrollement/transfers etc.
As far as passing meds go - do the kids ever get bathroom breaks, switch classes, go to lunch/recess etc??? I am at the elementary level, up to 18 medications to administer during the school day (not counting my diabetics that come and go thru the day), pretty much all the kids come to me at their required time. Between the parents, myself and the teachers we try to figure out a good time that keeps the kid on their med schedule and to help the kid to remember to come to me....several come at lunch or when they are switching classes, after recess etc so they are not really missing any class time and if they are missing class time - is 3-5 minutes (if that) really going to make a difference?
Specializes in ICU/community health/school nursing.
The reason all of those matter to me is because it really sounds like you are doing two very separate jobs. What happens if you are on the phone with an angry parent who's kid has been tardy for the 100th time and the little one you mentioned begins to have a seizure? This hasn't happened yet but I am worried it may happen. The only thing I will be able to do is tell there is a medical emergency, so I will have to call you back.
It sounds like you are doing your level best. But your Spidey senses are telling you that perhaps the non-essential, non-health care part of the job is now in the way of the job you were hired to do. So....I'd excuse myself from doing the other job, even if you volunteered yourself back in September to do it.
Nope, not my job, and it shouldn't be yours either, it is an admins job. I would speak to the principal about having someone else do it. Especially since you are chasing teachers down for attendance...NOT A NURSING TASK!
In my district, attendance is taken very seriously (maybe not so much where you are it sounds like) they need a dedicated person to do this. I will call parents about absences only if asked, or if I know it is medical (like they were in the hospital).
What they do not understand is I am not the right person to be doing attendance.
Good for you for working on your RN :)
And I am glad to hear they are actually training you, I feel like there are a lot of people who just get thrown into this world without any sort of direction. And experience in a similar field definitely helps!
Like you said above, I agree that you aren't the right person to be doing attendance. I would just explain to you principal what your "normal" day has been like lately. I have monthly meeting with my Principal and AP where I print out how many student's I've seen that month, what the most common complaints were and who my FFs were. They are ALWAYS shocked at how many kids I see on a daily basis besides my daily med pass and diabetics. I bet your admins know you are busy but probably don't grasp HOW busy you really are every day.
And I am glad to hear they are actually training you, I feel like there are a lot of people who just get thrown into this world without any sort of direction. And experience in a similar field definitely helps!
Like you said above, I agree that you aren't the right person to be doing attendance. I would just explain to you principal what your "normal" day has been like lately. I have monthly meeting with my Principal and AP where I print out how many student's I've seen that month, what the most common complaints were and who my FFs were. They are ALWAYS shocked at how many kids I see on a daily basis besides my daily med pass and diabetics. I bet your admins know you are busy but probably don't grasp HOW busy you really are every day.
Thank you for sharing what you do. I am going to start tracking how many children and my FFs. I know my admin team knows I am busy but they do not grasp how busy I really am.
We are fortunate to have a data clerk at each campus who is responsible for attendance among other things involving enrollement/transfers etc.
As far as passing meds go - do the kids ever get bathroom breaks, switch classes, go to lunch/recess etc??? I am at the elementary level, up to 18 medications to administer during the school day (not counting my diabetics that come and go thru the day), pretty much all the kids come to me at their required time. Between the parents, myself and the teachers we try to figure out a good time that keeps the kid on their med schedule and to help the kid to remember to come to me....several come at lunch or when they are switching classes, after recess etc so they are not really missing any class time and if they are missing class time - is 3-5 minutes (if that) really going to make a difference?
I have 9 med rounds throughout the school day. During classes I have been able to group several students per round, they either have class together or classrooms next to each other. One round I meet with a group of lower school kids during their lunch. Another round a group of Jr/HS students come to me during their break.
Yes all the students switch classes even lower school students. 1st - 4th graders do not switch as often. We have morning break (15 minutes) and lunch/recess (50mins). We are not strict regarding bathroom breaks. We had too many problems with LS students wondering the campus before and after getting their medication. Our campus is not one big building. Our students walk outside to get to their next class, gym, library, cafeteria, and front office, so they have more distractions than I did when I was growing up back east. At this time I do not have a problem going to most of the students, I like walking. If our student population continues to grow that will probably change.
Thank you everyone for responding to my post. As of now I still have to complete the school attendance but the Principle will email a friendly reminder to all the teachers to make sure to complete their attendance. She said after a few weeks if things have not changed to let her know and she will take the next step. She was annoyed that the teachers are putting this much work on me and not taking attendance seriously. I am starting to document every student (clinically) I see each week/month in a separate area, so the admin will know how busy I am and to prove why I am not the right person for completing school attendance.
I work in a small school and everyone wears many hats. I am the nurse, PE/Health teacher, Safety officer and substitute if needed. I do not, however, take attendance.
Thank you everyone for responding to my post. As of now I still have to complete the school attendance but the Principle will email a friendly reminder to all the teachers to make sure to complete their attendance. She said after a few weeks if things have not changed to let her know and she will take the next step. She was annoyed that the teachers are putting this much work on me and not taking attendance seriously. I am starting to document every student (clinically) I see each week/month in a separate area, so the admin will know how busy I am and to prove why I am not the right person for completing school attendance.
I have a codes built into my computer for email, phone calls, parent drop ins etc. The time we spend on all of that needs to be accounted for and it makes a huge difference in my numbers.
I work in a small school and wear many hats as well. One of those being Attendance. I do not worry about each period of the day attendance, just homeroom. If attendance is not in the system by a certain time, teachers get a call into their classroom from me. Usually a few of those calls is all it takes to get them to remember. I also do not offer to input it for them into the system but rather ask them to please enter right away so it so I can make attendance calls. This is now making them stop instruction to answer the phone and then to input the attendance data. That's usually enough to annoy them into being more compliant. In my system I can run a report at the end of the day which will indicate which teachers are not taking attendance each period. Maybe you could offer to run something like that so administration can get on those teachers that are failing to do that part of their job.
I find being responsible for attendance and making those calls home benefits my work as the Nurse. I know what's going around and what symptoms to look for in kids coming in, I am able to educate parents and students on reasons they should/should not stay home from school, and I keep my finger on the pulse of things going on in the school community. It has led to decreased absences in my students with chronic health issues and better overall attendance in the school.
When you wear many different hats it can be difficult to manage those roles but in the end it's all about triage, attending to a student having a seizure takes priority over a bloody nose which takes priority over addressing a parent's 100 questions about everything. Attendance is at the bottom of the importance list. As long as your administration understands that then it can work but you have to make sure your Nursing responsibilities are being handled first. Good luck!
MegWorth
72 Posts
I have a few 7 - 12th graders who take their meds during lunch, they come to me. The younger kids that take their meds during lunch I go to them. I rather go to the younger kids during their lunch because it was more work to try to get them to come to me. They kept forgetting to come to me because all that was on their mind was food and time to play.