I feel like I'm losing.

[Amethya]

It feels like no matter what I do, is wrong. I been getting complaints from parents becaus I failed to call them on incidents, but I did call them. One of them was because the student was playing a kicking each other game and ended up getting kicked in the groin and I called but mom never answered, so I called grandmother. She stated I never called her when I did. The other one was ina post I put because her daughter got a fever at the end of the day and I didn't catch it. Each of these incidents were reported to my admin and I'm getting in trouble for it and I'm trying hard to please them and do my job right but I'm not sure how anymore. I'm literally feeling like I'm not cut out for my job anymore because of this and scared I'll get fired because of all the complaints I getting. I don't know what to do and I'm even scared to call parents because what ever I say will get me in trouble anyway.

[Farawyn]

What Nutmegge is trying to say, nicely, and I what I agree with....it's not about you getting in trouble.

It is about you possibly causing SERIOUS HARM to a student. You are in an unsafe situation. Part of it is the school's fault for NOT having an available RN, but part if it is yours.

You are looking at how this affects you, not the possible effect you may have on a student.

Yes, I hope you move on to a job better suited for your skills.

[NutmeggeRN, BSN]

So then tell me what do you want me to do about my job then? Just resign? Because in all honestly, I'm not the only CMA in our district, almost all of our schools have these medical aides. I do understand what you are coming from, and I'm not trying to be defensive, but I really like my job and I'm getting paid more than a normal place would pay. I am working on being an RN, but for now I'm with a CMA certification and I plan to use it to the fullest. As well, in Texas we are allowed to work anywhere as long as there's a NP or a physician who knows what we are doing, and we do have one overseeing us.

I am not representing myself as a Nurse, as I tell every parent I am a medical aide, and everyone knows it. There's a ton of charter schools here that do not have nurses, but medical aides. And I know for other nurses out of state worry about the legal part of it, but my school district has been in business for years, and all they had is Medical Aides, and they know how to protect them selves this way too. Every year have two meetings for the medical aides, and we talk about what we can do and what not do as medical aides.

The reason why I didn't get this meeting was because I was hired late, so I had to wait to go to the second meeting to get the gist of things.

Again, I am not trying to dump on you. I worry that you don't know what you don't know...I wish you the best, but I think you are in a precarious place. Maybe,down the road, after you are working as an RN,you will appreciate the concerns put forth here.

[JenTheSchoolRN, BSN, RN]

What Nutmegge is trying to say, nicely, and I what I agree with....it's not about you getting in trouble.

It is about you possibly causing SERIOUS HARM to a student. You are in an unsafe situation. Part of it is the school's fault for NOT having an available RN, but part if it is yours.

You are looking at how this affects you, not the possible effect you may have on a student.

Yes, I hope you move on to a job better suited for your skills.

And to elaborate, nicely, it appears your school/you would like you to be able to make health assessments without the training/ability to make assessments. Yes, you can take a temp, vitals, but technically, you can't do anything more but call home and report the info.

If your school is expecting you to digest that information and use it an assessment of that student's health status, then I'd be concerned. RN oversight is one thing, but typically the RN overseeing an CMA is easily accessible/available for further eval/assessment if needed. Is the RN overseeing you easily available for questions? We have a few RNs here who work with an aide, but they are on site with that aide to handle further assessments.

[tining, BSN, RN]

Amethya,

Sincerely and respectfully, most of your threads send up red flags to me and the other nurses: "Got scolded by parent today," "I feel like I'm losing," "I did something bad," and other posts that clearly show us how under water you are. I feel you would benefit most in a direct supervised position, like hospital, MD's office, assisted living, or even the camp position you are doing this summer. You may feel like you have a grasp of your scope of practice, but it seems your admin and the parents think your scope is more. Their expectations are not your fault, but have obviously led you into scenarios that you are truly uncomfortable with. It seems that posters here have been super supportive and helpful, but are finally seeing what I suspected for a while now - you are in a situation that is not fair or safe for you or your students. I realize that pulling up stakes and getting back out in the job market may seem daunting, but ultimately and hopefully it will put you in a situation where you will grow and appreciate the field of nursing that you aspire to do. This is an opportunity to reflect on the past year and decide if you want to be safe for yourself and your students. I believe the choice is clear to me and the other SN posters, but it is your choice.