Please Share! New school nurse looking for tips, hints, and other helpful info!

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I am just starting a new job as a school nurse. My history is in pediatric critical care so I have a lot to learn and I'll have to get used to not having a unit full of coworkers and residents at my disposal for help or to be a second set of eyes! I also don't have the luxury of using much more than vaseline, ice packs, and salt water rinses for treating the students. I shadowed a school nurse today and she had some wonderful tips for me - a tsp of peanut butter cures hiccups (just be sure they don't have an allergy), Vaseline and an ice pack are great for nose bleeds, disposable washcloths can be turned into a warm compress by wetting it, microwaving it for 15 seconds, and placing it in a plastic baggie!

These are GREAT tips and I know there must be more things out there that will come in handy when "treating" a student. I would love to hear any of your tricks, tips, clever things you've come up with when you're limited by what you can use. And really - just any helpful tips you have - about parents, teachers, office flow, etc etc would be appreciated! I am super duper excited and I think my "mom" knowledge might be more useful (at times) than my nursing knowledge just based on the last few days I've had of orientation!

Thanks!!

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Specializes in mommy/baby, home health, school nurse.

NEVER, NEVER, NEVER let a student come in without a paper nurses pass. They should have name, date, time, and complaint. If the kids have a head injury and you don't know their name you can't assess that. Paper passes are great to jot notes on before charting when you have several kids (I went to the bathroom, came back and there were 6 kids in my room with various complaints). :arghh: Some times kids come down without their teacher's knowledge, if they have a written pass you know the teacher knows. Obviously, if a student comes in with a nose bleed that looks like he/she was hit by a 2x4, treat the nose bleed then call the teacher.

Find out EXACTLY what your hours are going to be and if you are required to attend "professional development" for teachers. It doesn't make any sense to me to have to go to these "professional development" meetings when they're discussing how better to teach math. Some principals think that's what we should do. "Professional development" for a nurse should be how to make the Health Office run smoother, safer, healthier, not a better place for math or reading.

Find out if you have a budget and what it is. There are going to be tons of "toys" that you'll want, but it's more important to have the gloves and bandages.

Keep communication lines open with teachers and parents. Error on the side of telling parents every little thing. Get or make nurses notes home. The older kids might toss them, but charting "Note home to parents." is nice if you get questioned.

There's a Sub Nurse thread somewhere here. Look for it and use it as a guide to do your sub folder right away.

I had a lot of issues when I started. I ended up handing in my resignation. I liked the kiddie (for the most part) and the parents (for the most part) but those over 21 were too much to handle. I find myself wishing that they would just fire me. :crying2:

Have fun

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Specializes in School nursing.

For warm compresses, I also used those cheap disposable sponges: wet 'em, wring 'em out, place in baggie, micro for about 30 sec (in my microwave, temps may vary). The same thing work for ice pack - just freeze 'em instead :).

I'll admit, now I don't send home notes/call home for every little thing. I was, however, waaayyy more cautious in the beginning when I was getting to know my population and most parents knew that and shared info in some of those phone calls about their child's habits that I could store away for later. I work with middle school and high school kids and the parents might kill me for that many phone calls now. But every school/district is different. Ask the outgoing nurse what the parent population is like - it can give you a good feel.

Do you document on paper or through an EHR? Either way, get familiar with it so that you can fine tune the documentation to work best for you. For example, I work with SNAP. I used the Special Info box in the opening page of each student's record to put in what OTC permission from parents I have and any other info that I need to know that is easy to see on that very first window.

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Specializes in kids.

Nosebleeds.....I have found that expressing the clot is the quickest way to stop the bleeding. I have the student use a disposable wash cloth as well as LOTs of paper towels ( to prevent blood spatter) and they do it right over the the garbage pail. I have them gently blow out the clot on the affected side. Once the clot is gone, the bleeding stops. Then I advise they use vaseline to coat the inner nose.

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Kids mostly want TLC so anything will help them feel better. I use ice pack for everthing it seems like. I started using baking soda on wasp stings and it seems to really help.

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I normally have the child hold nose for 4 minutes. Never thought of using vasoline, will do that next with my frequent flier, & try evacuating clot. Love all these little tips. Working as a camp nurse has helped me a lot too.

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Specializes in kids.

I also offer mouthwash for the unwitnessed vomiting in the bathroom....usually a good sign when they say they do not need it.....they probably have not puked!

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Specializes in school nursing, ortho, trauma.

oh, i like that one!! i'm going to start doing that too

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What kind of mouthwash?

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Specializes in kids.

Very generic Equate or something from the dollar store

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I give notes for students to return to class. Says the time they left my office (b/c some of them can walk mighty S...L...O....W) and any f/u the teacher should do/watch out for. I have worked hard to get the kids to know that, aside from emergencies, they should come to my office on "Their Time" (i.e. recess or lunch) and the pass allows them to get back to my office if the teacher says, "you already went to the nurse an hour ago"

Otherwise, the main things I use are :1) ice packs for any bump/bruise 2) hot tea and saline gargle (sore throat, cold symptoms) and 3) lots of TLC

Good luck!

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