Good afternoon peeps- I am just reaching out to see if there are any School Nurses on here from Missouri that will be performing the BinaxNOW Rapid tests in their schools.
I also want to hear from you if your schools didn't decide to participate and what the rationale was for that?
For those that will be doing the Testing- How are you feeling about the process, as we are preparing to start testing soon?
So thankful for the training and support that we are receiving to get ready to start the Testing process.
Specializes in Home Health,Dialysis, MDS, School Nurse.
I don't feel I'm doing anything that would require a renegotiation of a contract. It falls under "other duties as assigned". And really, every staff member is going above and beyond contract requirements this year to make everything work. Our admin has been great about our extra work, giving us more scheduled work days without students and we even got a Christmas bonus. As for testing safety, I'll wear either a N95 or Surgical depending on symptoms and a shield. Gloves of course. I spend only a minute close to them while testing, then I put them in my iso room to wait the 15 min. For staff, they usually have called in ill that morning, so they drive up and I test them outside in their vehicles. I'm happy to say between our state DOH and normal supply channels, I have plenty of PPE.
Specializes in ICU/community health/school nursing.
19 hours ago, RNCentralMA said:
We have a very small supply of N95s and I worry they will say a surgical mask with face shield is fine to do the testing. I worry about PPE, office coverage, emergencies in other parts of the school building, breaks. Seems to me this should be done in the first 1 hour 1.5 hours of school then shut the thing down so you can get some work done.
The surgical mask with shield is not acceptable and they will need to provide you the N95 or PAPR or other comparable.
I've had two nasal swabs and sneezed both times.
I am wondering if anyone's doing these outside or if they're all being done in one room that isn't the clinic. I love your idea of batching these in the AM....but sadly, the Tylenol won't wear off 'til lunch and the ibuprofen carries one almost to dismissal so I would venture to guess that whomever does this is in and out of a room and PPE several times a day.
I don't feel I'm doing anything that would require a renegotiation of a contract. It falls under "other duties as assigned". And really, every staff member is going above and beyond contract requirements this year to make everything work. Our admin has been great about our extra work, giving us more scheduled work days without students and we even got a Christmas bonus. As for testing safety, I'll wear either a N95 or Surgical depending on symptoms and a shield. Gloves of course. I spend only a minute close to them while testing, then I put them in my iso room to wait the 15 min. For staff, they usually have called in ill that morning, so they drive up and I test them outside in their vehicles. I'm happy to say between our state DOH and normal supply channels, I have plenty of PPE.
See, I don't actually want known - meaning staff that symptomatic when they wake up - ill staff coming to the building or close to it. Plus our buildings do not have large parking lots - we have small ones with tandem parking so drive up would not work well (my school is in a very dense urban neighborhood). Many of you many have very large parking lots that work better, though.
I will work with symptomatic staff to get tested in their area with PCR test - I'm luckily that I can usually get them to a site same day. And do our daily screener, I know about it when the screeners go out at 6 AM via text. (Yes, my day starts super early!)
I would wear an N95 while testing if I were doing the BinaxNow testing - right now I'm using an EMT service for our weekly surveillance testing (which is a PCR test using a lab that turns the results around in <24 hours; this week I had results in 12 hours). These are asymptomatic folks and they cannot test them unless wearing a N95 mask (which the EMT service provided - we are paying for their service of course and any PPE built into the cost).
Specializes in School Nurse. Having conversations with littles..
1 hour ago, JenTheSchoolRN said:
See, I don't actually want known - meaning staff that symptomatic when they wake up - ill staff coming to the building or close to it. Plus our buildings do not have large parking lots - we have small ones with tandem parking so drive up would not work well (my school is in a very dense urban neighborhood). Many of you many have very large parking lots that work better, though.
I will work with symptomatic staff to get tested in their area with PCR test - I'm luckily that I can usually get them to a site same day. And do our daily screener, I know about it when the screeners go out at 6 AM via text. (Yes, my day starts super early!)
I would wear an N95 while testing if I were doing the BinaxNow testing - right now I'm using an EMT service for our weekly surveillance testing (which is a PCR test using a lab that turns the results around in <24 hours; this week I had results in 12 hours). These are asymptomatic folks and they cannot test them unless wearing a N95 mask (which the EMT service provided - we are paying for their service of course and any PPE built into the cost).
Jen- Sounds like you have figured out what best works for you and your building set up.
I test staff outside in a drive through. I haven't tested any kids yet.
Jen- Sounds like you have figured out what best works for you and your building set up.
I test staff outside in a drive through. I haven't tested any kids yet.
Yep - again I realize all of our schools are different. Heck, states are different in terms of access to testing. The testing you do may be the only way staff in your area can get a test in a timely fashion. And that is huge.
Doing the weekly testing has shown how my state stays contract tracing is awesome when it fact it is anything but now. They can't keep up. Today I had a staff that tested positive get told by their doctor's office that 10 days is wrong and it is way longer, another nurse told them 14 days and she was just so confused. I was able to piece together that is appeared they were working off previous CDC guidance, not the updated guidance. And they were confusing isolation vs quarantine. It is confusing, yes, but in health care we need to read updated guidance. It is exhausting, but I'm just considering it part of my job this year to help protect my school community the best I am - I just went to another contract tracing webinar run by my state since I know it changes. so. much.
(Staff member was still heavily symptomatic on day 10, which I explained that in that yes, their isolation continues. I'm not relying on a contract tracer anymore and just doing it myself more and more.)
Specializes in ER/School/Rural Nursing/Health Department.
I work one day each at 3 schools in the county. 2 chose to order the Binax and 1 did not. The one that didn't cited issues with the school board approving them and not wanting to be responsible for testing. The two that ordered them we only have board approval to use on adults.
We have tested several teachers/staff that were symptomatic--it went well-they text me from their car and I PPE up and test them. If they are positive then they notify the principal via text/phone and leave. It has kept the school from having full classes quarantined, etc. by not even having them in the building for the test.
Our county health department has decided NOT to allow people to test out of their quarantine which has made one of my superintendents a little upset. MO DESE put out an email saying the Binax test could be used to test out of quarantine right before Christmas break started. We had a full sports team out on quarantine and they had to miss all the Winter tournaments.
Eleven011
1,250 Posts
I don't feel I'm doing anything that would require a renegotiation of a contract. It falls under "other duties as assigned". And really, every staff member is going above and beyond contract requirements this year to make everything work. Our admin has been great about our extra work, giving us more scheduled work days without students and we even got a Christmas bonus. As for testing safety, I'll wear either a N95 or Surgical depending on symptoms and a shield. Gloves of course. I spend only a minute close to them while testing, then I put them in my iso room to wait the 15 min. For staff, they usually have called in ill that morning, so they drive up and I test them outside in their vehicles. I'm happy to say between our state DOH and normal supply channels, I have plenty of PPE.