Just curious how different school systems work. Do most of you have a specific school you are assigned to full time or do you go to various schools in your county or city?
My city schedules the nurses to different schools on a daily basis. Some days I may go to two schools, one in morning and one in afternoon. We do have full time nurse at one elementary school with a tube feeder that gets a bolus feeding 3 times during school hours, if that is your assigned school you stay all day. Other wise we divide up the schools and the times based on the procedures at the various schools.
We've discussed if consistency of care and learning the students would be better. Our supervisor thinks if we each had a permanent school the schools would think they have their "own" nurse. I'm confused by that reasoning. Any thoughts?
Specializes in Telemetry, Gastroenterology, School Nrs.
We have 4 schools within our District (2 elementary, 1 middle, 1 High) and I am responsible for 3 of the 4. I have an assistant nurse that stays at the K-2 elementary. I generally start my day at the 3-5 elementary and then I spend lunch at the MS. The HS sees me less frequently. They all call my cell phone if they need me or if there is an emergency.
2 schools in our district-one with K-6 and one with K-12. I am the RN at K-12 and I have an LPN that I supervise at the K-6. She has been there for 12 years and needs little supervision. I mainly just check on her every now and then and make sure she has everything she needs. We work together to get all of our state required stuff done.
I like seeing the same kids each day, watching the graduations and programs. I think of these kids as mine. I think that it also helps to get to know those frequent flyers and the ones that really just need a hug or a listening ear more than anything. I love this job!
Specializes in family practice and school nursing.
In my area just about every school has it own nurse. A lot of the legislation in my state makes it almost necessary, especially if there are special needs students. For example, giving meds cannot be delegated (with few exceptions).
We are 30 nurses to just a little over 50 schools. We have anywhere from 1-3 schools. We are an urban district and generally are within a few miles of our schools. I personally have 3. I have had 2 in the past and I like 2 over the 3, obviously. I have never had just one, except in a long term subbing situation.
Here is what we have talked about in the past with schools just having one nurse- they begin to feel like they "own" their nurse. The nurse can't leave their building for meetings and such because the staff freaks out because they feel less and less responsible as the nurse hours increase. Nurses lose their lunches and plan time (we have both in our contracts in our district). We also have at least biweekly meetings on Friday's in our district that nurses must attend. Another worry here is if we get to one nurse in every building, being delegated non nurse tasks since we are in the building full time. Also, right now, we have a wonderful nurse leader who is our boss, us nurses are our own department (health services) and our principals are not our bosses. Will we feel micromanaged by a non health professional if we are just in one school? Sometimes it stinks packing up my staff midday to go from one place to the next, but sometimes it's nice because I eat lunch in between buildings, in peace, in my car, unless I need to heat it up. Or I run and grab coffee if I need a pick me up. Those are just some of the downfalls that we have discussed in our district. Right now we are just trying to advocate for our district to hire enough nurses so we can be within the NASN recommendations of 1:750, which doesn't necessarily put us at 1 nurse in every building.
Here is what we have talked about in the past with schools just having one nurse- they begin to feel like they "own" their nurse. The nurse can't leave their building for meetings and such because the staff freaks out because they feel less and less responsible as the nurse hours increase. Nurses lose their lunches and plan time (we have both in our contracts in our district). We also have at least biweekly meetings on Friday's in our district that nurses must attend. Another worry here is if we get to one nurse in every building, being delegated non nurse tasks since we are in the building full time. Also, right now, we have a wonderful nurse leader who is our boss, us nurses are our own department (health services) and our principals are not our bosses. Will we feel micromanaged by a non health professional if we are just in one school? Sometimes it stinks packing up my staff midday to go from one place to the next, but sometimes it's nice because I eat lunch in between buildings, in peace, in my car, unless I need to heat it up. Or I run and grab coffee if I need a pick me up. Those are just some of the downfalls that we have discussed in our district. Right now we are just trying to advocate for our district to hire enough nurses so we can be within the NASN recommendations of 1:750, which doesn't necessarily put us at 1 nurse in every building.
You make some really good points here!
At my previous district, I had such a hard time finding subs and if the building was without a nurse I would get a lot of the (half-joking) "You can't take another day off! You're not allowed to be sick!" when I would return. Nice to be appreciated but kind of a guilt trip.
We are 30 nurses to just a little over 50 schools. We have anywhere from 1-3 schools. We are an urban district and generally are within a few miles of our schools. I personally have 3. I have had 2 in the past and I like 2 over the 3, obviously. I have never had just one, except in a long term subbing situation.
Here is what we have talked about in the past with schools just having one nurse- they begin to feel like they "own" their nurse. The nurse can't leave their building for meetings and such because the staff freaks out because they feel less and less responsible as the nurse hours increase. Nurses lose their lunches and plan time (we have both in our contracts in our district). We also have at least biweekly meetings on Friday's in our district that nurses must attend. Another worry here is if we get to one nurse in every building, being delegated non nurse tasks since we are in the building full time. Also, right now, we have a wonderful nurse leader who is our boss, us nurses are our own department (health services) and our principals are not our bosses. Will we feel micromanaged by a non health professional if we are just in one school? Sometimes it stinks packing up my staff midday to go from one place to the next, but sometimes it's nice because I eat lunch in between buildings, in peace, in my car, unless I need to heat it up. Or I run and grab coffee if I need a pick me up. Those are just some of the downfalls that we have discussed in our district. Right now we are just trying to advocate for our district to hire enough nurses so we can be within the NASN recommendations of 1:750, which doesn't necessarily put us at 1 nurse in every building.
I am at one school full-time and this is exactly how the staff reacts when I need to leave for whatever reason. At times it can be a struggle to leave a few hours early to attend a meeting, not to mention trying to leave for a few moments to eat lunch. They definitely feel as though they "own" me as a nurse, although my supervisor is a Nurse Coordinator that runs out of a central district building and not the principal. When the school year started and I told them the late afternoon meds would need to be given by someone other than me on days that I had a meeting, they looked at me like I was crazy!
Supernrse01, BSN
734 Posts
We have 4 schools within our District (2 elementary, 1 middle, 1 High) and I am responsible for 3 of the 4. I have an assistant nurse that stays at the K-2 elementary. I generally start my day at the 3-5 elementary and then I spend lunch at the MS. The HS sees me less frequently. They all call my cell phone if they need me or if there is an emergency.