How much education do you do in class?

[Aneroo, LPN]

I was asked to do a presentation to two of the health classes on nutrition today.

Those students thought I was crazy. LOL First class was good. We did good, I think they got a lot of the info. Second class- not so sure. I think they were just less receptive. They were more interested in talking to each other (with a few exceptions). The exception was the smart girl, who wanted to know if she needed to take notes and making sure she made a 100 on her other test. LOL

So the second class- video is going. The teacher steps out to use the phone, and almost the entire class starts talking. Got it quiet a few times, and finally I had enough. I walked up to the front, stopped the video, got my stern Mommy voice out and said "I asked you to please be quiet during the video. I'm taking time to come down here, I expect you to be respectful and be quiet. We'll have discussion after the video is done, and we can all talk then. OK?" and I restarted it. I got the evil eye from one student (who had already been moved by the teacher, and I called her out again later).

Anyways- how much education do you do in class, or is it mostly office time?

I always get nervous in front of the kids (even more nervous when doing presentations for the staff). I like it though- my long term goal is to become a nurse educator, so it's good practice. LOL I need to write up the lesson plan and objective for other nurses to use!

[mustlovepoodles, RN]

None. I am so busy seeing kids (at least 65/day) that there is simply no time to do anything else.

[bergren]

In Illinois, classroom teaching preparation is part of the school nurse certification curriculum. Design and execution of an evidence based lesson plan is required in the internship, as well as the other parts of the school nurse role such as policy development and advocacy activities: http://www.nasn.org/Default.aspx?tabid=279

To decrease the health office traffic, looking into the percent of the school population over the 85% of BMI, patterns of health office visits and absenteeism can suggest which health promotion education topics take precedence. Certainly interactive programs to promote handwashing and flu vaccines many decrease the rate of health office traffic and can justify asking a nonlicensed person to man the office while in class. In fact, asking your principal to sub for 30 minutes or so can be a lifechanging experience, the big aha!!!

Consider topics that have both health and achievement consequences: screen time, sleep, breakfast etc.

Check out Gerri Harvey's website for more tips on handling health office traffic.