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?
I am a population of 850 ish 6-8th grade. 6 T1D kids, 16 daily meds. Other than those I see an average on 10-15 students. Some diabetics I see twice and some I see up to 6 times a day. 5 seizure kids, but no diastat :), Several behavior plans
We have about 950 students (grades 6-8) . I have seen 5,684 as of today. However, as the other poster commented, I don't chart on the little things (bandaid for stubbed toe, lol). I have 5 diabetics, 2 seizure kids, and about 15 epi pens.
ETA: I see an average of 40 students a day. minimum of 24 for sure, up to about 60 max).
I have 410 students here in Pre-k-5th. I have one diabetic I see 2-3x's a day, 8 med kids a day and usually average is 10-15 kids a day for injury/illness. We have a full time counselor which helps. If I see more than 15 kids for injury/illness I start getting testy. Days of fun things like Christmas parties I usually only get 2-3!?
Specializes in school nursing/ maternal/child hospital based.
THANKS to you all for responding. Makes me feel a little better seeing your numbers. Some days I feel like Im chasing my tail. Most of our issues are psycho-social and/ or poverty driven. Im speaking with an administrator next week to explain why I think more social services help would benefit our school. This is not a shock, we all know that social service and psych help is lacking in all areas. This job has made me realize that it does truly take a village to raise a child. Much love to you all!!!!
I have found that my level of testy-ness is directly related to the amount of kids that I see before the school day even begins ?
YES! I actually stopped opening my office p/t first bell at 7:55. Before, I would have students coming off the bus and straight to my office for bandaids, HAs, injury from last night that "needs ice." It was so irritating, that I decided to keep my door locked until first bell, although I will of course meet with parents between 7:30-7:55 (usually dropping off meds in the Am).
And guess what....? Since I made that change, I have had about 2 knocks on my door in the past 6 months. It turns out, the extra-early visits are largely unnecessary (my guess is that the kids are just kind of bored if they have 30 minutes to kill before classes, and also like a little extra attention of having to drop by the RN before class).
Specializes in Pediatrics, home health, school nursing.
Im an LVN working in an elementary school with a school census of 800 students plus 100 students from pre-school from another program for special ed. Daily i see about 20-30 students if its a busy day but if not probably about 15-20 which is not a big difference. My school is very high mantienece with alot of kiddos who's family are low income. I've notice alot of them crave attention and sometimes they just want someone to provide that attention. Probably i say about half my students visits have to do more emotional situations than health wise. Either way I love giving them support to them and making them feel love and care for.
For the first half of the year (Aug - Dec) I’ve seen 4334 (including daily meds) and 10 classroom head checks ?... about 89 days worth of school... I see pre-k through 12th
My first year (at that time school had about 350 kids) I saw an average of 65 or so a day. Repeat offenders, at times. I started being a Big B about the nonsense they were being sent for and the number has shifted. This year I would say I capped out at 35-40 and our student body was 264, I believe.
I have 685 students (grade 9-12) and I was averaging 95-100 visits per day (including diabetics, scheduled meds, enteral feedings). In February I gave up on the idea of asking for help or asking for permission and locked my door!
I have my door open and available 3 times each day for scheduled medication administration: 30 minutes start of school, 1 hour over lunch, 30 minutes ~2pm. I have sign on the door during those times to let everyone know that these times are reseved for scheduled visits. For all other visits, I require that the teacher calls and gets permission to send the student.
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 finally ran a report, as of yesterday I have charted 9,320 visits. (High School 9-12th grade; 685 students). I had just reached my breaking point with 100 visits per day and so many of them were so silly and clearly avoidance!
Besides requiring that the teacher call and receive permission, I have some other "set" rules: 1. Injuries that happen at home, need to be taken care of at home 2. I will not see students during 1st period-- you do not need to walk off of the bus and into the nursing office - if you were that ill then it should have been discussed at home 3. I will not take care of piercings, tattoos, body modifications -- if you were a "big" enough boy or girl to have received these, then you are "big" enough to care for them!
Does anyone else hear, "My mom said I had to come to school and have the nurse send me home?" THAT might be my biggest trigger! If your mom is saying that, it means that you are already in trouble related to truancy. I will NOT then help you "cheat" the system by "sending you home." If you don't have any clinical symptoms of concern, you are going right to class. If you do have clinical symptoms of concern, you are going home, but I am not excusing it because it has already been made clear that your parent(s) was aware that you were sick and sent you, against school policy and risking the health of all the other students and staff -- I won't "reward" that!
cid1
69 Posts
I am a population of 850 ish 6-8th grade. 6 T1D kids, 16 daily meds. Other than those I see an average on 10-15 students. Some diabetics I see twice and some I see up to 6 times a day. 5 seizure kids, but no diastat :), Several behavior plans