arnoldlayne

Btw, I'm still very annoyed because if the "accident" report form we use in school doesn't count for anything when a situation arises, what is the point of having teachers fill them out in the first place?

That's what I keep saying, but my boss and boss's boss keep insisting that my nursing documentation is indeed the incident report. My boss's boss even went on to say he doesn't want to get the teacher who wrote the 'accident report' in trouble. Mind you it doesn't even occur to them that they're potentially throwing me under the bus under my very eyes. He was arguing with me that the form we use, entitled the 'accident' form, is not standardized in all of our schools and therefore not valid and therefore he does not regard it as an 'incident' report. I feel like it was an argument over semantics. We just had a conference today. Sigh.

Btw, I really think it's my boss sneakily trying to push me to be the fall guy, even though nothing was done wrong on any end. What she did tell me at one point was that the reason behind her not wanting to give the 'real' incident report was because it was written very unprofessionally by the teacher.

I started working at my school in February. Some time in March I had a child brought to me because she fell in the playground on her own, wasn't pushed, and broke her wrist. When the child was brought to me, the teacher was beside her the entire time, and I gave her ice and kept her wrist straight without a splint. I called the mom to come pick up the child to take to the ER. The mother picked up the phone right away and was able to come within a half hour. Fast forward to a month later, the mom starts asking the school administration for an incident report. The prinicipal then forwarded this request to me, which made me very concerned for the school and for myself, so I took matters into my own hands and went to my other boss whom I report to, the Safety Manager, a move which I now regret. I asked her how we should approach this and she told me I should hand over to the mother my online nursing treatment notes which is erroneously titled an 'incident report' on the software, although, it's really my treatment notes. So, when she suggested this, I had to explain to my boss explicitly that those were my nursing treatment notes and not an actual accident report and I told her I was concerned of potential lawsuits. I still do not know what the mother wants the accident report for. There was a separate incident report written by a teacher who was there at the scene and I insisted, that is probably the better and 'safer' choice to give to the parent. After going back and forth with my boss, she contacted her off site boss who went to consult with the company lawyer and supposedly the lawyers are saying that it is indeed my nursing notes that should be handed over to the mother. I am really beyond baffled about all this. Never in 3 years of working as a school nurse have I ever been asked to hand over my nursing notes to a parent, who is, btw, a nurse herself. I just foresee some bad things happening. The family, btw, is having some legal and financial problems themselves. I feel like I'm being thrown in the lion's den by my own boss and all I hear is her laughing her way through the halls. This is an international school and they're not well versed on American law or culture one bit. I smell disaster and I'm ticked off.

Hi. My school will be mounting first aid kits up on the wall of every classroom and I feel concerned about many items that came in the kit, such as: BZK towelette-benzalkonium chloride wipes first aid cream-benzalknium and lidocaine neomycin antibiotic ointment ammonia inhalant scissor tweezer sterile buffered isotonic eye wash instant ice pack-water and urea triangular bandage Which items would you take out of the kit and consider unsafe to keep in the classroom? I fear some of the items might accidentally get into the hands of children and I also fear teachers are not equipped to use some of the items. Also, there are certain items like antibiotic ointment which I've never applied on a child without a doctor's order.

Quick question. My school is mounting first aid kits in every room and was wondering if ammonia inhalants are allowed in NYS schools. My boss, the health and safety personnel in my school has no clue of anything.

i'm gonna try to stick it out for a bit, straighten things out…what really puts me off though is that all the staff keep bad mouthing the last nurse and yes, it seems like she had a bit of an odd personality, but aside from that, seems like they just criticize her for doing her job.

Thanks for your replies. I have to say, the school culture here in this private school is such that the parents are EXTREMELY entitled. They will argue with me on just about everything because they're wealthy. Even when it comes to something as simple as picking up a child with a fever, they somehow try to twist it into being the nurse's fault that the child had the fever in the first place. These are literally high class thugs. I've had a mom argue with me for about 20 minutes, with her husband on speaker because they didn't think it was necessary for them to pick up their child who was severely wheezing all day, and even after med. administration the wheezing didn't clear. They casually told me 'he wheezes all the time' and that they want to go light on the meds. The staff doesn't even support me; they tell me to come check out a child for head injury and then they warn me not to call the parents. I've had a teacher here force me to take the phone from a child who was talking to her mother, just because, as he says, they don't allow children to talk to on the phone with their parents. I've only been here for about a month now, but it's halfway through the year and I only have about half the medication forms I need, the other half won't bring them in and they'll make up all sorts of lies and excuses such as, the physician will charge them money for the form (for christ sake, if that is even true, these parents sure could afford to pay). My boss who is the head of health and safety literally tells me she's busy every single time I approach her, before I even open my mouth, she says she's busy. All day, she runs around looking flustered, but I notice most of the times, she's just chit chatting with every staff member she can get a hold of. I even asked her if she had a minute to go over something very simple and she flat out told me, 'no' and then went about talking about how her coffee pot went missing again and this and that. I still don't have my permanent computer because it's been 'sent out for repairs' going on a month now so documenting is difficult because my computer is so slow. Sorry for the winded reply...the principal critiqued our last nurse for being too vigilant about vaccinations and that she was too unpopular with staff and parents!! Well I wonder why? Admin isn't doing anything because they don't want to do anything that might make themselves 'unpopular' with parents. I've never been to a school where nearly every parent has gone into a long argument with me and have involved admin merely because they didn't want to pick up their child.

I just started working at this private school and recently it was brought to my attention that the granola the school has been serving has ingredients that were made in a facility that processes nuts. All along, I've been told this school is nut free, but this info was just brought to my attention from a teaching assistant who just saw a new nutrition info sheet posted in the cafeteria, so this info is new to everyone. Just wondering what might be the most prudent way to go about this. The 3 peanut allergic children, from what I've been told have been eating the granola all year without adverse reactions. I'm assuming the parents were never informed about this considering this seems like new information to everyone. I realize when labels say "made in a facility that processes nuts" the risk is minimal, but I still don't want to take any chances. What is the best way to go about this without upsetting the parents?

Seeking something that has relevant and useful information for school nurses to stay current. Any suggestions. I'm considering the Journal of Pediatric Nursing and also the Journal of School Nursing.

Hi. I just got hired at a private school which pays a little better than my previous public school position (both through an agency). On my first day at the private school, I noticed, there were very few medications with proper medication forms (by that I mean, the NYC medication 504 form) and we're already in February; some of the medications in the cabinet had Dr. prescriptions vaguely scribbled on script pads, some of the meds had no order at all, and some of the medications did not match what was on the order be it script or 504. It's all pretty atrocious to me. On top of this, the principal and the HR coordinator both criticized the last nurse for being overzealous when it came to contacting parents for walk-ins, and too rigorous in following vaccination schedules, and lice protocol, also told me she called 911 when it wasn't necessary---it all sounded to me like she was actually doing a good job and standing her ground amidst a staff that was possibly oblivious. Administration also told me she had been very unpopular with staff and parents, but they seemed to ascribe all of that to her being too rigorous in following protocol. All this makes me worry because I feel like first and foremost, I'm walking into a job where I will not be supported and it seems like this is all too common for nurses in schools, the lack of support and understanding of what nurses have to do on our ends to safeguard the school as well as our license. Second of all, coming straight out of public school, I've never been in an office that was so lacking in proper documentation and paperwork and ironically administration is giving out vibes that they'd prefer me to be a little slack. I'm really rather confused by the lack of standardization in private schools. How do private schools get inspected? I'm assuming the city doesn't come to inspect private schools. I feel like we have a hundred violations and I just want to practice legally. I'm also worried by the lack of support. For example, when I worked in public school, I had two nurse supervisors I could reach, plus trainings and other nurses I could speak to. Are private school med. rooms standardized at all or is it up to each school to create their own policies? Please give me any insight. Thank you.