Another nurse just came to me with an interesting issue. The "Smith" family in my school district is being investigated by DHHS (CPS).
My coworker (fellow school nurse) came to me with a legal/ethical question. The principal of her school is asking her to print a record of every nurse office visit of a member of the Smith family for the DHHS investigation (this student is seen multiple times a week for an ongoing medical condition). My coworker has been involved with this student/family since the beginning of the school year and has filed multiple reports to DHHS regarding her observations and concerns for student Smith.
My coworker does not feel it is necessary for other staff to have every record of every visit student Smith has made to the nurse's office. She has spoken to DHHS and they have the information she feels they need. The principal "agrees and understands", but then tells my coworker that the tech department can go into our electronic documentation system and print off the nurse visit records if my coworker refuses. "The documentation software is district property, therefore, we can access any records we want." The superintendent of the district is telling my coworker to print the nurse visits.
My coworker has attempted to contact our state school nurse liaison for guidance with this issue with no success.
Our state school nurse handbook has no answers.
Any thoughts? Does my coworker have a leg to stand on refusing to print the office visit records?
Wow. That explains it WAY better than they did at the new school nurse orientation I attended last year. Thanks for that! I am going to forward this to the other nurses in my district.
ohiobobcat
887 Posts
Wow. That explains it WAY better than they did at the new school nurse orientation I attended last year. Thanks for that! I am going to forward this to the other nurses in my district.