"I have started eating my breakfast at 7:50 (10 minutes before my office is to open, mind you), gotten two bites and not been able to finish it until 3:10 (10 minutes after dismissal). "
Don't you just love how they show up way before you are even contracted to be there?? God forbid you be there early to get some paperwork done. I have this theory that if you were there at midnight, someone in the neighborhood would see your light on and start banging on the window asking to have a rash looked at!!
" I have this theory that if you were there at midnight, someone in the neighborhood would see your light on and start banging on the window asking to have a rash looked at!!
This would happen in my school-no doubt!!! I stop by in the summer for some paperwork and my phone starts ringing "I saw your car in the parking lot and I was wondering..." SERIOUSLY???
All I really want at this point is to go one day without a parent making me feel like scum or a teacher ignoring my rules because they can't be bothered. I want to go one day without regretting taking this job. But I think that's more about me, and less about the job itself.
no it's actually more about parents thinknig that their child is the ONLY child in the world. At the end of the day... and maybe it's just because i'm in a mood lately... i'm starting to think that people really are just out for themselves. Pollyanna me used to believe that people cared a little bit about others, but apparently not. They don't care that the school nurse hasn't eaten all danged day and has seen kids like rapid fire for ridiculous malingering requests. They won't care until she passes out from low blood sugar and then their only concern is that Sally won't be able to come down for the tummy ache she gets during every math class (which by the way, she's failing in part because she spends half of every math lesson in the nurse's office).
I like my job. I like seeing the kids grow up and being successful and mature into respectable beings. What I don't like is the fact that I have to practically beg their parents for things that are state mandates like immunizations and physicals but if i am too busy to make one phone call immediately (which by the way whould have probably take me calling atleast 6 numbers if I actually wanted to talk to a person) i get my butt verbally handed to me by an irate parent. It's not the kids that drive me crazy, it's never been the kids. Its the parents.
Tired of being expected to be held to a higher standard just because I am the nurse (no lunch, not being able to leave campus and take a real lunch break/run a few errands, do anything without being interrupted for nonsense complaints....).
Pay me a respectable salary and not the chump change teacher salary we make in our district (and we are supposed to get the same prep periods and uninterrupted lunch break as the teachers) and I promise to never complain again!
Good heavens I feel better reading some of these!!
I just want a parent to believe me when I say your child needs you. I had a child sit in diarrhea for 2 hours today. He was in kindergarten and I can't wipe kids!! His mom gave 1 number that was both her and her husband's home and cell number. Really??? You won't answer the school??? I had to track down her child in another school to find out that I might be able to reach her at the local Burger King where she works. I did give this child a change of clothing and talked him through wiping himself but he soiled himself again within 20 minutes. I'm not a clothing store! I actually feel like I stink of poop after the day.
I would LOVE to have a lunch!! The teachers seem to think I don't need one because I get kids all day. They get a prep. I get nada.
Today the before care program tried to send me a child with a belly ache. Huh??? I haven't officially started yet! A bellyache can wait.
After diarrhea student, I tried to walk out for lunch but another teacher sent a child to me so that the child could "rest" (aka, could I babysit her?).
I sat down for lunch and 2 minutes later, the secretary calls me for a child that peed his pants. I called home and mom asked me if I could find him something. I got him a pair of pants and he complained they were too tight. Does it say GAP across my forehead????
And I would really like a principal that would back me up when I tell a parent that his or her child cannot return until I see some proof they've had at least 1 shot!
But the principal gets to evaluate me and tell me what I'm doing wrong. Ha!!! I guess I'll have to read up on common core vocabulary so I can quiz all the bellyaches and make sure they are doing something productive with their time.
Specializes in family practice and school nursing.
A lunch break.
Stop using my office as a social gathering point to visit with friends while pretending to be sick.
Parents to send in the required paperwork for meds to be given in school
Teachers to stop sending kids for ridiculous reasons
To get more than an hour's notice when there is a field trip.. often times depending on the kids who are going these require a 2nd nurse to administer meds.
To get the supplies I request in a timely fashion
Support from some of the administration ( there are multiple special ed programs and alternative programs in my building with different administrators)
For each parent to hand in their child's paperwork - including documented updated immunizations - before the first day of school. And if that paperwork includes a needed medication, the doctor's order and medication in hand on the first day of school.
I would like for the fifth graders to stop doing the gross food challenge! I had yet another puker come in today, from either doing it or watching others do it. JUST STOP!!!
For each parent to hand in their child's paperwork - including documented updated immunizations - before the first day of school. And if that paperwork includes a needed medication, the doctor's order and medication in hand on the first day of school.
1)Teachers that don't dx the students before they send them up and then question why I sent the student back to class.
2) And teachers that don't waste me time with ALL and I do mean All of their personal medical history. I am more than glad to help them in an emergency but I don't want to hear all about every trip to the doctor you have made. Nor do I need to know all the medical hx of your child who isn't enrolled at this school.
As for being interrupted for nonsense issues at lunch (while I wolf down a yogurt at my desk..) Can you imagine if you did the same to a teacher?
"Johnny needs help in math. I see you are free. How about some 1;1 tutoring during your lunch?"
Their heads would pop off!
All I ask is the same respect. If there is an emergency, of course I am here. Note: a headache that has been going on all day is not an emergency. Nor is a paper cut.
For those of you who do not get a lunch break..I did the same thing for the first 2 years of this job. I would eat after the kids left for the day. You know what? That's just not right. Ask yourself if the rest of the staff in your building would skip lunch every day. The resounding answer would be NO!
Our teachers and classroom aides get an HOUR for lunch. (Kids have 1/2 hour for lunch, and 1/2 hour for recess.) The staff can leave, run errands, get lunch out, etc. The least we can ask for is 30 minutes with the door closed to eat something.
Really, it's not too much to ask and it makes a HUGE difference in your day. Some days I might get only 15 minutes beofre I am interrupted with an issue like a child who threw up, has a fever, etc. But it's still something!
But I think that's more about me, and less about the job itself.
SchoolNurseTXstyle
566 Posts
"I have started eating my breakfast at 7:50 (10 minutes before my office is to open, mind you), gotten two bites and not been able to finish it until 3:10 (10 minutes after dismissal). "
Don't you just love how they show up way before you are even contracted to be there?? God forbid you be there early to get some paperwork done. I have this theory that if you were there at midnight, someone in the neighborhood would see your light on and start banging on the window asking to have a rash looked at!!