NurseLRW

My large high school district has SNAP! Very thankful that we do.

Truly spot on!! Read the article last night and was thrilled that someone was able to describe such.

We have SNAP in our large high school/middle school district (4 individual schools with approximately 6,200 students). SNAP meets and exceeds all HIPAA and FERPA requirements. HIPAA compliance is achieved by automatically auditing all edits to student medical data thus preventing any unauthorized changes. Also, access to the program is limited by requiring each user to sign in with a unique user name and password. User accounts are maintained by the system administrator and can be assigned a variety of security levels allowing or denying access to each of the 26 functional areas of the program. FERPA compliance is met by automatically tracking all access and edits to student health records. In addition, SNAP helps us to keep track of immunizations. I truly have absolute confidence in SNAPs immunization audit compliance. SNAP is linked directly to the NYS Department of Health, so when school immunization rules and regulations change SNAP is always up to date. We have quite a few students with chronic conditions, like asthma or diabetes. We are able to create an individual health care plan for these students. We can track blood pressure and blood sugar readings, make graphs that show changes, and print those out for parents to take to their healthcare provider. The system also helps us with medications. It tracks how many doses have been administered, so we know if the student is forgetting to come in for meds. This is very important. And we can see when we need to contact the parent for more pills etc. We also utilize SNAP to track concussions. There has been so much interest now in sports-related injuries. The system also gives us nursing assessment templates. Say a student comes in for a headache, the nurse can click on the headache template and it prompts questions such as Did you have a head injury?” The technical support staff is excellent. Many are registered nurses that have been school nurses. Hence, they truly understand what our needs are.

[h=1]When Hospital Paperwork Crowds Out Hospital Care[/h] Here is an opinion piece about how paperwork in a hospital can take precedence over patient care.

Originally I worked as a substitute for Horizon Healthcare (school nurse substitute agency).They kept me very busy in elementary, middle & high schools. I found that being a substitute prior to taking on a full time position was beneficial.This enabled me to see how other nurses had their offices set up and I got to work directly with various age group's. I was suprised to learn that I prefered the older students and working with the faculty in high schools. Anyway, being a substitute is a terrific way to gain both experience and as others have mentioned, obtain information first when positions are posted. Good luck!

Do you have a lunch break? Do you leave the building?

This is an issue at my school as well. In our contract we are supposed to have a "duty free 50 minute lunch break". However, my principal expects me to stay in the building. Our compromise is that I leave but stay no further than one block away. This has been OK until recently, although not very relaxing. Recently there was an emergency and the principal was upset that I arrived to the scene 5 minutes after receiving the call to return. We are now advocating for another RN to hired in the district to cover our lunch time. Please see my post from today and kindly reply with the information requested. Thank you.

$50,000 step 5. Started at $42,000. I am employed in a high school with 1,100 students.

Hello everyone, I am employed in a high school with 1100 students. In my district each school has one RN and a secretary in the health office. Please read my post requesting info from others regarding nurse to student ratios etc. Thankfully we have SNAP and it is VERY helpful!! I noticed that a few others posted that they just getting used to SNAP. I recommend setting up an "Members Area" ID to access the "how to" area. There is a lot of user friendly information on the website and the technical support staff are extraordinary. I believe that many of them were originally school nurses. My school renews the tech support contract every year so that we always have assistance available. It is not very expensive. The members area info on the website is free. The web site can be accessed at: School Nurse Software: SNAP Student Health Records Management Software

What is your nurse to student ratio? I work as a school nurse in a high school in Long Island, New York. My school has 1100 students enrolled and I am the only RN in the school. Our district has 3 other high school, also with an RN on site and a secretary in the health office. We are in the process of advocating for another RN to be hired for each school. Ideally, an additional RN, full time for each school. More realistically, another RN, part time in each school or at the worst an RN to cover our lunches and to assist with screenings etc. Was wondering what the situation is in other school districts. Please reply with details regarding: location of school, type of school, student to RN ratio, if there is an LPN, secretary etc. Thank you!!!!

I was accepted as well! Congrats to all admitted and good luck to all still waiting!

Congratulations!!!!

I agree with wingding, you passed. I also passed with 75 questions and was convinced I failed! I cried on and off for 48 hours! My poor family. Cried again when I learned that I had passed.

This is an interesting topic and I agree that we will see an increase of interest in understanding more about the link between Psychiatric and Gastrointestinal disorders. In addition, there has been an increase of interest in research focused on Autistic Spectrum Disorders (ASD) and Gastrointestinal involvement. Below is a link to an interesting article. Pathophysiology of autism spectrum disorders: Revisiting gastrointestinal involvement and immune imbalance Pathophysiology of autism spectrum disorders: Revisiting gastrointestinal involvement and immune imbalance

ennovy05, Yes, a three year program will be more manageable. I recently completed an RN to BSN online program. I completed almost 100% of the coursework at the library or Starbucks. Actually found that I was more productive at Starbucks. Something about the background noise there worked for me. Unfortunately, after you spend a few hours at a Starbucks you start to smell like ground coffee beans. It's not a wonderful smell, but the free wifi service there is excellent. I hope that decisions are made available soon!!