How busy is your office?

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First year school nurse here! Loving the job, love my kiddos and my staff is great, but my office sees an excessive number of students each day. On average, how many visits do you have in your offices each day, and how many students are in your school? Any tips on cutting down unnecessary visits? (i.e. "I bumped my leg two days ago, can I have ice?", chapped lips, etc.)

On average, I have 45-50 encounters every day and have 480 students. That number does not include my scheduled medication visits.

Specializes in Acute Care, CM, School Nursing.
I log every visit, telephone call, meeting with parent or teacher, time spent working on 504 plans etc. Somedays I may only "see" 30 kids, but I have "worked on, with or for" another 15 or 20. I think it is important to document that time as it specifically related to our kids. It may be nothing more than a quick note (s/w Mrs. so and so re need to get physical for sports). It justifies my time and it also provides a digital trail. Obviously the notes are more dertailed when warranted.

I like this. We have recently started logging in visits on the computer, instead of writing everything on our log sheet. It makes it way easier to check how many times "Suzy" has been in the Health Office. Instead of going back through hundreds of handwritten pages, we can just type her name in and see all visits entered.

As NutmeggeRN mentioned, I think I am going to start logging in phone calls and parent visits as well. Again, it makes it way easier to look up a conversation that may have taken place weeks ago.

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Specializes in kids.

It was easy enough to do, I just built some codes into the program with the blessing of my IT person.

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Specializes in Cardiovascular, School Nursing.

I am at an elementary school with 1,000 students. I see, on average, approximately 40 students per day. That includes daily meds and procedures. My biggest pet peeve is when there are substitute teachers. They have no problem sending half the class during the first hour of the day. Grrrr!

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I log every visit, telephone call, meeting with parent or teacher, time spent working on 504 plans etc. Somedays I may only "see" 30 kids, but I have "worked on, with or for" another 15 or 20. I think it is important to document that time as it specifically related to our kids. It may be nothing more than a quick note (s/w Mrs. so and so re need to get physical for sports). It justifies my time and it also provides a digital trail. Obviously the notes are more dertailed when warranted.

I need to have a better system for tracking phone calls with parents. I'm going to work on a plan for that this summer so I'm ready next September.

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Specializes in kids.
I need to have a better system for tracking phone calls with parents. I'm going to work on a plan for that this summer so I'm ready next September.

Depending on the situation, I will document the number I called as not being in service, or voicemail not set up. I can do this is my notes in my EMR. It is grat to have htat info on hand when I get yapped at for not being in touch. I reply ever so sweetly "When I called 123-4567, the telephone number listed in the system, it was NIS, DC or VM not set up." "Did I have the wrong information for that day?"

If we do chat, I make a quick note re: the reason and what ever other method of communication I used to try and reach them.

It has been my friend more than my foe!

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Specializes in School nursing.
Depending on the situation, I will document the number I called as not being in service, or voicemail not set up. I can do this is my notes in my EMR. It is grat to have htat info on hand when I get yapped at for not being in touch. I reply ever so sweetly "When I called 123-4567, the telephone number listed in the system, it was NIS, DC or VM not set up." "Did I have the wrong information for that day?"

If we do chat, I make a quick note re: the reason and what ever other method of communication I used to try and reach them.

It has been my friend more than my foe!

Totally agree! I log in phone calls as well in my EMR. I use SNAP, so if it was not related to a specific office visit that day, I often log it as medical update or the like. I hit many, many phone numbers that don't work and full or non-functioning voice mail boxes.

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Yes! I document all phone calls, emails, as well as in person visits from parents. I also log illness when a child stays home. With 600 kids it helps me to remember who was ill and when. We have a "contact log" section on our EMR.

Ugh on the non-functioning cell numbers. (And no voicemail/mailbox full, etc.) It does make my job harder.

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Oh how I wish we had an EMR. I have 3 schools with a total of approximately 1,800 students I rotate between these schools through out the week. I actually leave myself sticky notes on paperwork to remember what I was doing with it the last day I was there. I do NOT feel like I am documenting enough, but I am getting better. Even if it is just a short note saying that I re-checked a child for head lice....but I still feel like I could do more. I am still fairly new, so I have yet to find my groove. I would given anything to go down to having only two schools. A girl can dream right?

One of my schools has thermometers in each room, but they still send students up for temperature checks?! I am still trying to figure that one out. Sometimes I feel like I am sherking my nursing duties....but come on a band aid? I even had one sent to me right at the end of the day because her butt itched. What was I supposed to do with that one? :***:

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Specializes in ED, School Nurse.

I see between 25-40 kids a day. I work in a high school of about 600 students, and sometimes I cover the junior high school which is in a separate building attached by a short hallway. The junior high adds another 200 or so students to my watch, but the secretaries are really good about only calling me for "emergencies" when their nurse is not in the building. Most of the teachers here are pretty good about managing the small stuff in their classrooms. They send students down to get more band-aids all the time. This is my first year as a school nurse, and I have been fortunate to have had decent interactions with students, parents, and staff here.

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I see 15-20 a day but usually less. Most of those are frequent flyers. I have one daily med and a few diabetic checks. Same at both schools-one has 265 and one 370. I make the teachers fill out a pass to send one of their students with name, time, and reason. It cuts down on a lot of silly stuff for most teachers but there are always a few that are happy to fill one out for several students a day. I totally get what you mean about subs! So frustrating!

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Specializes in Pedi.

Update:

After talking with administration about how much time kids were missing on learning time, the staff was spoken to and my visits are now in the 30s. Most visits are still not usually necessary, but it is a HUGE improvement. I think stressing the amount of class time being missed is what really hits a chord with school staff who don't fully understand how much work we have in our offices.

To all who are on the cusp of April vacation, enjoy! We have earned it! :)

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One of the other nurses in my district had 70 visits on the day before spring break - and that was a half day! She said the highest before that was 50. WOW!

Tuesday was a personal record here, at 42 (with daily meds, 49). And a huge variety of things at that: lice, fights, pink eye, allergies, asthma, vomit, papercuts, pretty much anything that doesn't require a ER visit, I had it.

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