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I used this study (link below) as part of my "I am asking for a raise" package. It states that the average American school nurse sees about 3-4% of the total student body each day (including daily meds/treatments). At my very small school of about 280 students (middle and high school, 2 T1D, 1 student with daily med given at school, no daily treatments), 4% of the population would be about 11 students.
My median daily visit count is 25 (accounting for/removing half days and a few extremely high visit days of 30+).
WOW! I'm at a K-5 school, 400 students, we have guidance and several psych interns. At the start of the year I was seeing 50-70 a day, it was absurd. I spoke with my principal and instituted a Nurse Pass. Visits have dropped dramatically! Generally less than 20 per day. One big change this year has been taking specials teachers off lunchroom duty, now it's just parent volunteers and they send kids to me for every. little. thing!
I did a quick check in Campus and my charted visits are at 3732. We are a PreK - 12 school with around 600 students. My actual students in and out is much higher though because I'm very bad at charting my "fly bys" - "can I have a bandaid for this invisible bug bite?" "can I have an ice pack for this week old bruise?". If I charted each kid that entered, it'd probably be double. I am the only nurse for the school. We have one elementary and one high school counselor. We have in house speech, and contract OT, PT and pysch/counseling visits. I don't deal with a lot of social/economic/psych visits - our counselors are exceptional. My top visits are stomach, headache, cold symptoms and playground injuries.
I was at a school about 12 years ago that went from about 1600 students to about 800 as they opened a new middle school that took about half of our students. Interestingly, I had no decrease at all in clinic traffic. Always stayed around 40-50 a day.
Next, I was at a school of 1350, started out as 70-80 visits a day but got it down to about 40-50. Now, at a school of 735 and see about 35-40 daily.
Hmmm....................
17 hours ago, Cas1in72 said:I am at day 151 of the school year. As of yesterday, I have had 6195 students in my office. I have approx 480 K-5th grade students. I have sent home 3.6% of those visits.
Mind you... I have ZERO diabetics this year, ZERO seizure kids. Have 15 epi pens. But other than that, the medical acuity is very low.
Im gathering data to speak with administration to argue we need more social service programs. Im totally serious when I say 80% of my visits are psycho-social, low socio-economic stressor, drug exposure/ violence related. I would consider us a rural school. We have less than 10% minority. 50% of our students are on free or reduced meals. Academically we are a B+ school. We have 1 school guidance counselor and me.
How many are you seeing? How big is your school? Are you the only nurse in your office?
Thanks in advance for sharing!!
It sounds like we are the same person in the same job. I have one diabetic right now though.
I've got around 190 students preK-6 and including my 3 daily meds, I've had around 2700 visits thus far. Averages out to around 18.5 visits per day and that is honestly pretty accurate. Not including med visits, I usually see between 15-20 kids per day.
I am also bad at charting some "fly bys", especially if its a repeat customer for a warm pack reheat or a new ice pack for a headache....
Cas1in72
186 Posts
I am at day 151 of the school year. As of yesterday, I have had 6195 students in my office. I have approx 480 K-5th grade students. I have sent home 3.6% of those visits.
Mind you... I have ZERO diabetics this year, ZERO seizure kids. Have 15 epi pens. But other than that, the medical acuity is very low.
Im gathering data to speak with administration to argue we need more social service programs. Im totally serious when I say 80% of my visits are psycho-social, low socio-economic stressor, drug exposure/ violence related. I would consider us a rural school. We have less than 10% minority. 50% of our students are on free or reduced meals. Academically we are a B+ school. We have 1 school guidance counselor and me.
How many are you seeing? How big is your school? Are you the only nurse in your office?
Thanks in advance for sharing!!