How do peds floors handle longterm patients with educational needs?

[notthereyet0]

For those with experience on peds floors with longterm kids, how do they handle their schooling? I am asking because I am a certified teacher and will also have a BSN after I graduate. Is there any special niche that anyone knows about, or is it not worth looking into? I don't want to be a school nurse...Thanks for any input you can give me!!!

[canoehead, BSN, RN]

I used to work at a pediatric hospital and they had teachers employed to provide school a couple hours a day. If the child was too ill to go to the schoolroom someone would visit the bedside. I'm sure they didn't get much completed but the kids seemed to appreciate as much normality as we could give them.

[lpnflorida]

We use to have a teacher on our psych unit for the adolescents also.

[llg, PhD, RN]

We have teachers employed by the public school system who are assigned to our hospital full time to be the link between the kids and whatever school system they attend. They supervise their educations while the kids are in the hospital. They are not nurses. They are regular teachers.

[NotReady4PrimeTime, RN]

I think that's the most common approach. And you would be surprised how much they get accomplished in that brief period at the bedside or in the classroom. When you eliminate the fluff and the distractions, so much can be done. Years ago I worked in a peds extended care unit where one of our patients was a teenager. She managed to keep up with her classmates until such time as she went for a transplant and then she fell behind. (And she was NOT the most cooperative kid in the world either!)