How Are You Passing Time?

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Specializes in Geriatric Home Health, High School Nurse.

We have about 45% of our kids on campus, and most of my high needs kids are doing virtual learning.  I was super busy with paperwork and beginning of the year stuff at first, but now that I've finished all that, I find myself wondering what to do next.  I don't even have any daily meds!  I call all our absences daily, keep track of our very small number of quarantining kids, Lysol the doorknobs for every classroom, change my bulletin board monthly, and pretty much anything else that I can think of, but what else?  I am seeing about 2-5 kids a day.  That's it!

Anyone else feel like they were preparing for a train wreck of a year only to find themselves wondering what to do all day???

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Specializes in ICU/community health/school nursing.

SHHH. 2-5 kids a day is NICE.

I am doing a lot of COVID follow up. That alone is a .5 FTE job up here in the NTX where we are still in the red and have opened bars to 50%.

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I also have only about 25% of the kids on campus any given time (about half came back for hybrid instruction, but they're split into two groups) and I also have been seeing 2-5 kids/day. 

However, calling the absences, keeping track of test results and everyone who's on home isolation, figuring out how to communicate all this to various administrators and support staff appropriately, and answering random COVID questions from every category of staff person and community member is taking up 75% of my day (!).  Explaining the timeline and why kids with congestion or a sore throat have to stay home x 10 days is really time consuming - if we had more kids on campus, I don't know how I'd manage. 

Otherwise, I'm doing hearing/vision for special ED kids who don't have a recent screening, plus the usual hounding of people about vaccines ?

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Specializes in kids.

I document every phone call, email, conversation, file review etc (SNAP). I had no idea how many phone calls or emails I did  in a day and they take up large blocks of time. YOu could also review and update all your IHPs, make sure you have current information on file for teachers that have kids with special medical situations.

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Specializes in Geriatric Home Health, High School Nurse.
8 minutes ago, NutmeggeRN said:

I document every phone call, email, conversation, file review etc

This is a great idea!  I am making so many phone calls these days and I haven't been capturing that productivity.  My job was just made FT this year and I don't want our board to look at my number of visits and cut my position back down to PT.

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Specializes in kids.
16 minutes ago, SchoolNurseK said:

This is a great idea!  I am making so many phone calls these days and I haven't been capturing that productivity.  My job was just made FT this year and I don't want our board to look at my number of visits and cut my position back down to PT.

Exactly!

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I'm personally drowning, but have you checked out NASN's data points to track for COVID?  I've been tracking those.

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Specializes in Geriatric Home Health, High School Nurse.
24 minutes ago, BrisketRN said:

I'm personally drowning, but have you checked out NASN's data points to track for COVID?  I've been tracking those.

I was feeling that way for the first 8 weeks!!  I am sure the lull will end, but right now I am feeling a little lost.  I will check out tracking those data points.  Thanks for the suggestion!

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Specializes in pediatrics, school nursing.

I was in your shoes when we were still in "Remote" mode, with only about 60 special populations kids in my building and no paperwork. I now have another 50 or so kids daily and a fragile diabetic, so I am finding I have less and less time!

I created a spreadsheet for COVID tracking, have been working on our district's website, I made COVID-response flowsheets for all of us nurses in our district to use, and have been asking our administrative assistant if there is anything I can help with during down time. But with an uptick in cases in our county, including a positive in our high school building, there hasn't been much time in the last week or so!

If I truly have nothing better to do, I knit or read or try to find educational videos on Youtube. I also have a bunch of CE/webinars lined up for days like today where there it is a half day for parent/teacher conferences. 

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I am enjoying this time, can actually taking a 30 minute lunch break without interruptions; able to drink my morning coffee while its still hot ?   We are alittle over 50% in-person - so about 390 K-5 grade.  I have been averaging about 15 kids per day - that includes my 5 that take daily scheduled meds. 

 We have been lucky so far as far as Covid goes - only had a few teachers and students come up positive.  We are still a go for vision/Hearing screenings so I have started to do that with my in-person students - mainly to kill time.  If I am not busy I have been available to help out with non-nursing duties here and there - it seems like the whole district sub teacher pool is limited with many not wanting to sub due to Covid.  

I don't like the situation we are in and am so ready to get back to normal; I am happy to have a slow clinic for once.  

 

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Specializes in pediatrics, school nursing.
47 minutes ago, AdobeRN said:

I am enjoying this time, can actually taking a 30 minute lunch break without interruptions; able to drink my morning coffee while its still hot ?   We are alittle over 50% in-person - so about 390 K-5 grade.  I have been averaging about 15 kids per day - that includes my 5 that take daily scheduled meds. 

 We have been lucky so far as far as Covid goes - only had a few teachers and students come up positive.  We are still a go for vision/Hearing screenings so I have started to do that with my in-person students - mainly to kill time.  If I am not busy I have been available to help out with non-nursing duties here and there - it seems like the whole district sub teacher pool is limited with many not wanting to sub due to Covid.  

I don't like the situation we are in and am so ready to get back to normal; I am happy to have a slow clinic for once.  

 

When you do get "back to normal", buy a Yeti Coffee Tumbler. Well worth the investment. My husband got one for Christmas a couple years ago and while he's working from home, I steal it for personal use. My coffee from 7:30 this AM is still very warm as we are approaching 12pm.....

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20 minutes ago, k1p1ssk said:

When you do get "back to normal", buy a Yeti Coffee Tumbler. Well worth the investment. My husband got one for Christmas a couple years ago and while he's working from home, I steal it for personal use. My coffee from 7:30 this AM is still very warm as we are approaching 12pm.....

Our school gifted us Yeti Tumblers last year which is awesome, but I have also had an Ello Campy Mug for 3 years.  $18 on Amazon & keeps my coffee hot for at least 4 hours. 

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