rbytsdy

I do ❤️ the stare-downs I get when I am on the phone and a student walks in. I give them a quick look (no bleeding, unlabored breathing, no bone deformities = you can wait). But they stare until I hang up. My son was getting assaulted by a bully at school (Verified HIB incident). The school wants to “work with him.” We finally had enough and called the police. I think the school is still surprised we did that.

I was a member of the teachers union when I was full time. They were useless in helping me when administrators ordered me to improperly administer a medication. As I was dealing with that, I called the union rep for a meeting. We agreed to meet during my lunch. I told my school I was leaving, the counselor sat in my office (to cover) and I signed out and went to the school 0.5miles down the road. My school called 20 minutes later and ordered me back to deal with an emergency (1st grader with a loose tooth). Then the administrators wrote me up for leaving the school during my contracted lunch period (we were allowed to leave but they wrote me up anyway). The union rep tried to help but ultimately, the union said there was nothing they could do (mostly because I wasn’t tenured).

I’m a Nj SN. I’m subbing right now. I’ve been in 4 different high schools and your situation is ridiculous. I don’t blame you for resigning. If you are open to another SN job, they aren’t all that bad! They aren’t easy - the issues, the paperwork, the parents... people have no idea how intense the job is. But $48k? You should have started higher for having so much nursing experience. That sounds like a first year teacher salary in NJ. You should’ve be “on par” with 1st year teachers.

I teach childbirth classes and parenting classes at my local hospital. But you could work prn with a home health agency too. They are always desperate for nurses and you can usually negotiate your hours. The agency I work for is happy if you just pick up 2 shifts a month.

It’s frustrating! There was a mom in a local school who tried to get a sub teacher fired. Why? He was the 5th kid in a hour to ask to see the nurse (and the kid, of course, never asked to see the nurse). The sub said, “no.” He threw up an hour after arriving home. Mom was livid he was denied the school nurse. I can’t imagie what the nurse would have done (other than temp and a few minutes of rest). But maybe I missed the day in nursing school where we learned how to predict vomit 60 minute prior....

I had a teacher who was so tired of sending me kids that she kept a cooler of ketchup packets in a cooler in her classroom. She had the kids put those on their eyes.

In my kids school they get a cookie. Seriously. Every month of perfect attendance = cookie from the cafeteria. My daughter was fighting me to go to school on the last day of Feb so she could get a perfect attendance cookie. Leaving 30 minutes early or arriving 15 minutes late for a doctor's appointment (with note) = NO COOKIE. Perfect attendance has to be absolutely perfect.

Send her home!!! Uneven piercings sounds emergent. We need a big cut-out check mark ✅ to hand to kids. That way they can return to their respective classrooms and there will be no doubt that they have, in fact, been checked. They can come back bearing the ✅ of the school nurse.

Those are good documents!! I used the “when to see the school nurse” document and it did help. I should clarify- I was in my first school nurse job for 2.5 years. My first principal was very nice and tried to be supportive. He found that “when to see the school nurse document” and suggested we present it to the teachers. We had 72 teachers in the school. If they all just sent 1 kid a day, I would still be overwhelmed. The 2nd year, a new principal came in and she was completely overwhelmed so she her own defense was to throw me under the bus if parents complained. I had a dad come in and threaten me because I kept calling for his son’s Epipen (parents felt they had a right not to sent it in if they didn’t want to). I tried to hang in there because I’m a nurse and I wanted to care for these students, many of whom were in a tough position. In the end, it didn’t matter. I was just one of the many nurses who came through. I’d still tell you to run. But run from that school. I love school nursing and I think it’s a great speciality. But this speciality is like any other. If you don’t feel safe (license, etc), then you need to get out. They are a lot of great schools out there. The recommended ratio for nurse to students is 1:750. I’ve been subbing in high schools where that ratio is still tight. I think that is way too much at the elementary school level. If you had even a part time nurse, I’d think you’d be a lot better off. Can you check with your state school nurse association? My state requires screenings every year. I had to beg and plead for a sub to come in and help me. There was no way I’d get screenings done otherwise.

Does your state require any kind of certification to work in schools? In my state we need a bachelors and a post-baccalaureate certification in school nursing which teaches a lot about working in schools. My first job in school nursing was similar to what you are describing except that I only had 520 kids. My advice? Run. That is a huge responsibility for 1 nurse, especially without much experience. My biggest concern would be a parent complaining, especially if meds aren’t give on time. I ran into so many similar issues and administrators did absolutely nothing to help me. I was sure school nursing was the wrong area for me until I filled in for a maternity leave position at a school with half as many kids. The job was so pleasant. As it turned out, I was the 7th nurse in 9 years at my first job in school nursing. They were just as awful to the nurses before me. I left almost 3 years ago. They have had 2 nurses since me.

I want to shake these parents. I used to work in an all walker district. I had 1 nervous teacher that used to send me a lot of kids. I didn’t think much of this one student coming in a 9am (school started at 8:30). 101 degree fever. I called dad. Guess what dad said? ”He shouldn’t have a fever. I gave him medicine over 30 minutes ago.” uhm, yeah. We don’t allow that. I’m going to need you to go ahead and pick him up. Took dad 30 minutes to get there.

No, not mean at all!!! I was in a huge school with a needy population. The “it hurts” were becoming overwhelming. The teachers would say, “I can’t assess” so every little ache would be sent down to me. I got tired. They wanted me to do something. So I did something. ? They got glitter kids.

I used them on the “it hurts” areas. That is, the areas where student didn’t bump, fall, or injury in any way. But they still expect you can take away that random hurt on the back of their finger!!! For some reason the “growing pains” explaination was not working!!!!

Oh and Monday’s CoTD came on a post it from a sub teacher: “upper bridge of nose aches.”

I had a student today give me a 10 minute explaination of how he tripped over the dog bed (story included pertinent information on picking up soiled puppy pad and retrieving new one) and hurt his knee. Steady gait. No limping. No signs of distress. Mom put an ice pack on it last night. I offered him a new I/p. He declined because it didn’t really help. I asked him what else I could do since he fell and hurt himself. It’s going to be sore while it heals. Student refused to leave insisting the knee really hurt. I asked him if he could get through the day or whether the pain was so bad I needed to call mom or dad. He insisted on the phone call. I kept asking if he was sure because if I called home, I would recommend his parent take him to the hospital for an X-ray. Student didn’t budge. Wanted that phone call home. I said, “ok. I will call.” Student: “Can I go eat lunch first?” That’s not the end of the story. Apparently he told the teacher he was getting picked up to go to the hospital. Teacher called me to make sure I knew he was playing basketball at lunch. Apparently math class exacerbated his pain.