I don’t know if I like school nursing

[nursex23]

Hello! I just started at a middle school and I have mixed feelings about school nursing. I LOVE helping the students that require nursing attention such as the ones with chronic conditions and the ones who have had injuries (so far they’ve been very minor except one possible leg break but ems arrived within minutes). I was surprised by how much my education and prior experience came together for my triaging skills.
Another part I don’t mind is the clerical work however the previous nurse left this office so unorganized it’s taking me forever to reorganize while still entering incoming documents.
The part that I feel would drive me away is the endless nonsense that I get from these kids. They come in packs and ask for things I don’t think warrant a visit to the nurses office. I have a girl who broke an artificial nail last weekend and has come in everyday multiple times a day this week for a bandaid and ice pack for her finger. I keep telling her she should just leave it alone already but she will not leave until I give her something. Endless students come in asking for an ice pack, many even go straight to the freezer and help themselves, and when I ask them what they want an ice pack for many say a headache. I suggest they try drinking more water and try to provide some education on why. Some listen and feel better but most look at me like I’m crazy and won’t leave without an ice pack. I have another girl that comes in everyday for an ice pack, she just goes straight to the freezer and says she has a headache. I’ve tried telling her to have water and lay down for a minute but she began arguing with me that she doesn’t drink water, took an ice pack and left. Am I the crazy one? Do we just give out an ice pack and do nothing else?
Some will tell me that they drink a lot of water throughout the day but they still have a headache and then I see it appropriate to try ice.
It seems like the last nurse would give any student anything they wanted when they walked in and everyone wants to come down just to leave with something.
There’s a bathroom in my office that students are allowed to use per the principal but I don’t like when they do because it’s a small office and I want to give those who need my attention some privacy.
I mostly wanted to vent to people who have experienced what I’m facing. I don’t know if I‘m complaining too much and should just let it go or what I should do.

I also maybe wanted to get some insight into if this is common with high school students as well. I’ve always genuinely liked teenagers and high school is what originally drew me to school nursing. Sorry if I rambled I just have so many emotions because I think I may have found a specialty that I could really enjoy but I dread the way many of these kids think my office is a fun way to get out of class and leave with a little prize.

[tining, BSN, RN]

On 12/6/2019 at 9:14 AM, Csn2016 said:

I swear I made a post very similar to this one when I started school nursing 4 years ago. I was drowning in documentation for the first year because the nurse before had papers for EVERYTHING. It took me a year to create documents I could keep on my computer and a flash drive and then I just print as needed. I cleared out SIX filing cabinets of useless papers, she had records from the 1970s yet, still had a pile of old glass syringes and needles (the type that used to be sterilized), and a ton of information pamphlets from the 1980s.

I did discover a Dunkin Donut gift card for 10$ too...didn't know how to get in touch with the previous nurse so figured it was my payment for cleaning up her mess haha. But I digress...I posted something similar here and took the words of encouragement with me and just worked at it one day at a time until I could find my system. It was impossible to even find a system in the state that the office was in and took me close to 6 months to straighten out (throwing in a maternity leave as well). I averaged about 50-60 kids a day.

Then the next year I had my system figured out, I was ready to hit the ground running, I learned who my frequent fliers were and could address them right from the beginning, I had to start giving tough love. My second year average daily visit was cut in half to about 25-30 kids a day. Each year gets easier, you figure out how your system works and what you need to change. As for the frequent flier ice packs, I make them sit in my office with the ice pack. That really cut down the usage (most of them like to take them back to class and 'play' with them or gain sympathy from peers-- if you remove that equation that eliminates a lot of the unnecessary ice pack visits.)

I also remind them ice packs are used for injuries involving swelling, if I see no swelling then no ice pack is necessary. If I have a student with repeat band aid visits for something so minor I'll give them an extra band aid to keep in their pocket (or better yet I sent a ziplock bag full of band aids to EVERY teacher at the beginning of the year which pretty much eliminated all paper cut/minor scratch injuries that do not require a nurse assessment.

Ditto!