No leadership

[carlsbadbats]

I have been subbing in a couple districts for 3 years. Recently I took a temporary position at an elementary school to cover for the RN until the end of the school year. This particular school district has a full time health co ordinator, who is an RN---she does not have her own school. Co ordinating is her full time job. Thing is, I or any other RN in the district has no idea what she does. There is little consistancy from school to school. She provides NO leadership or advocacy for her nurses. One day I was so busy i had no time to chart. At the end of the day, I left her a msg telling her about my day and that I would have to come in and do charting on my day off. Luckily I was paid for the time, but what struck me, was she NEVER called me to talk about it, not even a "sorry you had a bad day" kind of thing. It just blows me away that this woman gets paid to essentially do nothing. I want her job! I've never been a supervisor, but I KNOW I could be a vast improvement over her. I have a million ideas................... Anyway, just venting......... But what I really want to ask is this: How is this situation dealt with? Should her administration be made aware of how awful she is? Her direct supervisor is probably the Director of Student Services, who would essentially know nothing about nursing. What do you guys think? Or do you just leave it alone and wait for her to quit---------she won't get fired-------no one checks up on her.

[Purple_Scrubs, BSN, RN]

I'd be careful assuming you know what her job description, role, and duties are. I don't think it's possible to say if she is or is not doing a good job considering you have little contact with her and do not know what her function is. It could be that her position is more about interfacing with the other various departments, or it may be largely reporting to the state and district. Other than her not calling you back (which it seems that she did at least arrange for you to be paid for your extra time), what are your specific complaints about what she is or is not doing? School Nursing is largely independent practice. We generally do not have the luxury of another nurse at our beck and call as you would in the hospital.