Questions for school nurses.

[J-Swish]

Hey all, new to school nursing here.

Got several questions if you don't mind.

1) For immunizations, is there some sort of app where you can input dates to see if you're within interval? When is an immunization considered bad? I have a difficult time trying to plug dates into my head. Memorizing the schedule doesn't really help but I do keep it handy.

2) What do you keep in your emergency pack and what's your fast method for treating abrasions? I see it is very common where I am.

3) Any of you use Co-Ban? Is it mainly used for fractures, sprains, etc? Can you use it for wounds/abrasions with gauze?

4) Are there other duties you have at school that aren't really meant for the school nurse position (i.e. working registrar, etc.)?

[RatherBHiking, BSN, RN]

1. Never found an app. We just go by our guidelines. We're able to check our state immunization system that actually puts how old the child was when they received the vaccines and points out any out of a scheduled dose which is nice but not every kid is on it. Very rarely will you have one too close together to be considered "not valid". For example, if they need a booster of something at one year of age and the dr gave it a month early as that dose then it's not valid. They need to have it within 4 days of a birthdate. Most dr's are very vigilant in making sure vaccines are given in the proper timeline. The more you check the quicker you will get at it.

2. We have a list of required things for our emergency pack and it's like 20 items long so I'm not going to list them all but it's just basic stuff you would need to treat an injured person if you weren't in your office. (Gloves, penlight, variety of bandages, alcohol, etc). We treat abrasions according to our protocol. Wash and bandage. I dampen a Kleenex or gauze (if not able to wash in sink with soap and water easily) wipe it off, and put a bandaid on. We don't have any kind of medication or ointment we're allowed to use.

3. Co Ban not permitted for us. Anything we use has to be approved by our district and state and have a dr's Oder in place. If the county doesn't want to spend the money supplying it they won't have the order written and signed by our district dr so we have very little.

4. Sometimes I get asked to do non nursing things like answer the phone and door for the secretary if no one in office, covering a duty for a few min if someone has an emergency, etc but it's not too often or too bad. Well I take that back. If you consider helping kids change clothes, clean up, find a belt or shoestring solution, etc not a nursing duty then yeah I get a bunch of that. There's a whole thread on here of having to do things that aren't really medically related.