RedKat

Thank you ❤️❤️❤️

My senior mastiff started having some issues in the fall, and in December was diagnosed with bone cancer. I was able to spend much more time with him than usual during his last month of life. I'm devastated that he's gone, but so grateful that school was remote so I was able to have more time with him and more time to grieve before having to force a happy face at school. <3

I'm in NY. The local health department is doing a live facebook feed this afternoon, so I'll watch that... plus the state hosts a weekly call-in Q&A session for all NYS healthcare providers, so I'll probably try to call in and listen to that weekly. And I'll probably see if I can find any other free trainings or webinars now & then. I had already sent out my first round of letters regarding immunizations needed for the start of the 2020-21 year, so there's not much I can do with that for now. Plus I'm a bit more computer-savvy than the other nurses in my district, so I've offered my services to them if they have any trouble running reports at home from the program we use (SchoolTool). Can't think of much else for now!

Thanks for the input! Sounds like I'm thinking along the lines of what most of you are already doing. My diabetic isn't going, and no seizure students who have meds. Mostly inhalers, epipens, and a couple of daily meds which I've already got covered. Thanks for your help!

I'm in NY and having difficulty getting clear-cut answers on when a nurse needs to attend a field trip (middle school students). I had one nurse tell me that if any liquid meds will need to be administered, a nurse must go... another told me that if there are any students with a seizure hx then a nurse must go... another told me a nurse must go if any parent requests it... another told me that a nurse must go if any diabetic students are going. Are there guidelines on this somewhere? What is your policy? I have field trips 3 days next week and not much time to plan for a sub in my office if I have to go along.

I'm in the teachers union at my school. Most districts around here have the nurses in the civil service union, but mine and one other district put us in the teachers union. I don't know how it would work at your school, but here that means I'm on the teachers pay scale, and increase steps yearly just like the teachers, and when I retire I'll get paid back a dollar amount for every unused sick day I've saved up. And the benefits that cid1 mentioned above. If nothing else, I'm glad I'm a part of it just for the sake of knowing there's someone to back me up if issues arise.

I'm not. I'd like to be... but I'm currently still paying off my ADN, so it will be awhile before I can consider even getting my BSN. I would not get a pay bump for either getting my BSN or my certification, but I still would like to do it. Does anyone know if there is any way around the BSN requirement for certification? Like taking school nurse work experience into consideration?

Sorry you've been put in this situation! You've gotten some good advice from other members here. I also work at a private school. I think it's a somewhat uncommon situation - but I am actually an employee of the public school district in which my private school just happens to be located; everyone else at the private school is an employee of that school. Because I work for the public school district, we follow all their health-related protocols at the private school. This includes rules regarding exclusion for incomplete immunization records. At the start of the current school year, another private school (located in a different public school district) merged with my private school, so we went from previously having grades 6-12 to now having P3-12. Many of the new students from the other school came to me with incomplete IMM's for the grade they were now entering. We're supposed to exclude after 2 weeks, but I'll be honest, I hadn't even gotten a chance to look through all those records in the first 2 weeks. I was scrambling to do it, but my priority was trying to straighten out orders for emergency meds and ensuring that I knew who had what allergies, asthma, and other medical issues. Oh, and I'm only at my school for 2 1/2 hours a day. Needless to say, when the state contacted the school in early October to give us less than 48 hours notice that our immunizations were being audited (and they didn't tell me which grade(s) would be audited), I went into full-blown panic. I was incredibly lucky that when they came for the audit, they selected two grades of students that were with me last year, so their records were 100% complete and accurate. They told me that in my state, if students are incomplete and haven't been excluded, the school faces fines of something like $2000 per student. Not trying to scare you - but I'd suggest that you make sure you get clarification on what laws and penalties (if any) apply to your school, and make sure your administration is aware. Best of luck to you - next year will be better for both of us!

There's a student with the same issue in my district. Like many others here, I feel that a peanut-free school is not realistic. There could easily be times when a parent with good intentions sends something in their child's lunch that they didn't realize contained peanuts or manufactured in a non-peanut-free facility. I don't know all the details of how things are handled for the student in my district, because he's not my student - but I do know that he doesn't eat in the cafeteria (agreed on by him, his mom, and the school). I know that a child shouldn't have to be singled out, but if it's in the interest of keeping him safe, is there any chance he could eat somewhere else?

Using a pass system definitely gets my vote. I work in multiple schools each day, and just instituted a pass system in the one school that didn't already have it. I haven't heard any complaints yet, and we're a couple weeks into the school year now. We use a small triplicate form. The teacher fills out the student's name, teacher's name, date, time, and reason for visit. Then we fill out our findings, treatment, notes, etc. One copy is kept for our records, one is for the teacher if they'd like to keep a copy, and one goes home to the parents. It's a great help.

I can only speak for my district - but for us, the number of students you'll see in a day typically depends on what age group you're working with and what time of year it is (and of course your total enrollment). I spend a little time every day in each of the offices within our district, including a small private Catholic school, so I make 5 stops every day. The public PreK-2 nurse and 3-6 nurse both have steady streams of students, while the 6-8 and 9-12 nurses are usually... not always, but usually... a little less busy. That changes when it's time to do screenings for sports signups - then the 6-8 and 9-12 nurses are super busy. I don't know the requirements in other states, but we're in NY and at the beginning of the school year, we spend a lot of time reviewing immunizations to make sure everyone is up-to-date per state regulations for their grade level, making sure anyone with meds has a complete physician's order and parent permission, and putting together ICP's and ensuring that pertinent staff are aware of the medical needs of students with allergies, seizures, etc. All of this needs to be done as quickly as possible. Then we start focusing on the state immunization survey which for us is due each December. Each of the nurses in my district gets paid extra for a certain number of summer days of work, to cover fall sports screenings (done in August before school starts) and general office set-up, review of faxes/messages/emails that came in over the summer, etc. Personally I get 5 summer work days for just the private school. The other nurses get around 8 or 9 because they have more students.

I'm in a very rural area of NY. I'm fortunate to work in one of the two districts around here that put the nurses in the teachers' union and follow that pay scale. I don't remember the starting pay, but I'm starting my 4th year and will be just over 50k. Unfortunately, most of the districts around here don't do that, and pay the nurses much less. The closest school to my home - which would have been super convenient to work at - starts nurses at just $26k. Huge variance around here.

I didn't have ER experience (in fact, only 1 of the 6 nurses in my district did have it). I worked med/surg for 2 years, then a brief stint in home health care, then wanted to try school nursing so I started subbing in 3 area districts. Pay for subbing isn't great, but if you can manage it, that will be your biggest help in getting your foot in the door and finding out whether it's right for you. I learned a lot about the handling of urgent situations from A) my coworkers and stories they shared, and B) our district's protocol book. We basically get the ball rolling on initial treatment (administer Epi-pen, stop bleeding, start CPR, etc) while waiting for EMT's to arrive, then they take over. I don't mean to make it sound easy or stress-free, because it's not - but I'm just saying you don't need ER experience. Subbing would be the very best experience. Good luck to you!

I'm a little confused - do you mean that you worked for 3 years and then took some time off? How much time? I don't know how it is anywhere else, but around here I think the most important thing would be for you to start doing some subbing. I was a sub in 3 different districts for a year, working daily for several months in one of those districts, before I landed a permanent position. Subbing would look great on your resume, but it would also start familiarizing you with the job so you can really get an idea of whether or not it's for you. I'll admit that when I got into it, I was naive and found out that there was SO much more to school nursing than I had ever imagined. Thankfully though, it works for me and I love it. I've watched a few subs drop off the radar though, because they were overwhelmed once they found out what it involved. Best of luck to you!

I'm only in my office for the morning, then there's no nurse at my school while I go to other schools in the district for the remainder of the day. In my school, my office is locked when I'm not there, and meds remain locked in my cabinet. The secretary has her own set of keys so she can get whatever is needed. If my office was left unlocked, I have a feeling that things would start disappearing much faster than normal - so this way, she has some control over it when I'm not there. She does keep some bandaids and ice packs in her office (she has a small refrigerator) but unlocks my office when she needs meds or other supplies. Good luck!