New Elementary School RN

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Hello all,

I am beginning my school RN career in 2 short weeks. I’ve been an RN for 5 years on a very busy, diverse inpatient medical surgical unit, so this will be a big change for me. My school has about 500 students with a lot of ESL students. Any advice/tips/resources appreciated ??

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Specializes in retired LTC.

These folk here are terrific for info and esp, support. Stick with them.

Am not a SN here and am long retired, but his is my favorite site.

They would be telling you'"WELCOME'.

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Specializes in School Nursing.

Hi, welcome to the group! I work in a school of about 500 (elementary) kids which is 99% Hispanic, with more than half ESL students. I wouldn't trade my kiddos for anything!

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Specializes in kids.

The standard greeting...

"One of Us ! One of us!!!

We are the most  fun and nicest board on AN  (IMHO) LOL!!

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This board is the best place to be.  I was a relatively new nurse when I started in a school 4 years ago and these folks taught me everything I know!

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Specializes in kids.
37 minutes ago, BrisketRN said:

This board is the best place to be.  I was a relatively new nurse when I started in a school 4 years ago and these folks taught me everything I know!

whoo boy....LOL!

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Specializes in school nursing, ortho, trauma.

Welcome!  Get ready to be overwhelmed by cuteness on a regular basis at the elementary level.  As far as working with a large ESL population - if it's basically one language, consider learning some basics via Duolingo or something like that.  Hopefully you'll have a person or two who can translate, as relaying medical info can get tricky.  I don't hesitate to use Google translate or to use the handy dandy app on my phone.

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Specializes in school nurse.

Just a couple (out of a thousand) things:

See if you can get some face time in the classrooms. Lice prevention classes (for example) are always a good idea.

Also, start your vision and hearing screenings with the littlest ones. They're the least likely to be able to self-identify a problem. The earlier you pick up problems, the sooner they can be helped.

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Specializes in School Nursing.
1 hour ago, Jedrnurse said:

 Also, start your vision and hearing screenings with the littlest ones. They're the least likely to be able to self-identify a problem. The earlier you pick up problems, the sooner they can be helped.

I actually find waiting until later for the littles works better. They're so shy and just learning to follow directions in school.  I tend to screen 1,3,5 first, then K and PK.  

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Specializes in school nurse.
42 minutes ago, lifelearningrn said:

I actually find waiting until later for the littles works better. They're so shy and just learning to follow directions in school.  I tend to screen 1,3,5 first, then K and PK.  

I guess it depends. I've actually even done some late Summer/before the start of classes screening with the littles. Maybe I've just been lucky with the level of cooperation...

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Specializes in School Nurse.

Hi, I am just accepted a fulltime position at K-8th school. I was only part time last year. I am looking for short health/safety/nutrition lessons. I have never taught kids before so does anyone have a good resource?

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Specializes in Pediatrics, Community Health, School Health.

There are surprisingly several really great educational videos on Youtube - do a search and see what you can find.  It will be nice to get away from all things "Covid" this year with the health and safety stuff.  You can only teach them to wash their hands and stay 6 feet apart so many times...

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