First thread New school Nurse need help

Hello and Congrats,

I just got hired also as a junior high nurse by myself. A nurse assist was there by herself for years because she didn't want another person there with her. She said the schools that had 2 people constantly backstabbed each other and had to be moved around often. She takes about 6 blank copy papers and divides them into quarters and writes the student's name, ID #, grade, time in and out, chief complaint abreviated like sa for stomach ache, ha for headache, st for sore throat and then either home or RTC for return to class. 30 min before school is out, she shuts her door and charts this and gives to the office clerk to discard in case she needs to find out why a kid was absent or tardy. I also have been trying to learn the immunization computer charting which is very important to do accurately. She said if you can get through the first 2 weeks of school, you can make it the rest of the year. I see about let's see, 3 diabetics come in twice a day, 3 that need to urinate or cath self with min assist come in twice a day, asthma or other meds kids are about 7 a day, and other walk-ins are approx for the 2 days I worked, was on an average of 20-25. So for a grand total of of about 40-45 traffic daily. So I guess it sounds like yours with traffic but I have one school with approx 900 junior high kids. I don't usually eat until 1:30-2:00 in the teacher's lounge and I have to tell the secretary I'm still at lunch when a kids comes to the office. The lounge is one door in the back of the office. It seems they didn't respect the nurse assistant's time to eat and the nurse director felt it was because she wasn't an RN. But they still said something to us while we ate at my first day in the teacher's lounge about a kid sitting in the office waiting on us after we had only been in lunch for 10 min. I think she felt warm or didn't feel good. I think the secretart is either busy or scary when it comes to covering the nurse. It wasn't an emergency. But it will be fine. Hope I said something that'll help you. Let us know how it is going . :) How do the rest of you deal with lunch breaks?

Try and get coverage for lunch. Most teachers have a duty period in the cafeteria, office, guidance, etc. Perhaps they could schedule one of them a duty period in your office. Ask for a volunteer who wants out of the cafe or who is interested in health/first aid. There's got to be a teacher who is a "nurse wannabe" somewhere in your school. Take a couple of days to orient her/him in the basics. Let her/him know that you'll be there if she/he is unshure or for emergencies. Make sure they know their limitations. You really need down time during the school day. I'm sure if a teacher didn't get an uninterrupted lunch, they'd get the union involved. Why should you be any different? My coverage welcomes the time to grade papers or use my computer between student visits!

I just want to welcome you aboard and wishing you much success. :)

To SC Nurse-- School nursing can be a challenge, especially when it comes to time management. Although computerized records can be invaluable, they are difficult at best when you first use them. Check with whoever in your school system purchased the license for your healthcare software and see if they also purchased or would be willing to purchase a technical support package from the software company. That way, you can call Healthcare 24/7 and ask for help. Since their staff works with this all day, they can usually talk you through a problem in a few minutes rather than you trying to wade through the help documents. Good Luck!!

Hi SC nurse,

Welcome to school nursing. I'm guessing by now, you've been baptized by fire! I'm also in SC and am enjoying subbing for now and getting a good look at the various settings and grade levels. Bottom line, there is more than one "right" way to do things to get the kids and the paperwork done. Pick what's best for you, appear open to suggestion, and stick to your guns when you feel strongly about something!

I am realizing that language barriers are increasing and are an issue we can't continue to ignore in small town areas especially in elementary schools. But that's another soap box.

:Santa2:

Welcome!