School clinic substitutes- help!

safarirn · Mar 6, 2011

That is the #1 absolute WORST thing about school nursing... and it will probably be the reason I leave it one day.

Very frustrating!

millhouse · Mar 7, 2011

I gotta admit... It very well may be the reason that I leave too. I hate feeling like I have to choose between job and children. In the end, my kids will win the fight. And I am not talking about being habitually absent. It's one reason I went into school nursing, the flexibility (or so I thought) and the ability of being with my kids. I am just wondering... what does everyone else do about the situation?

LACA, BSN, LPN, RN · Mar 7, 2011

We have ONE sub for our district (well, we have 2 or 3, but the others won't travel to my school....they say its too far). Every time I've called her lately, she's told me no. So I've left my sick two year old daughter with family and came to work. Absolutely stinks, but I've had no other choice. I'm going out of town in April and have to be off on a Friday...if she won't sub, then I guess we won't have a school nurse that day LOL They can do well enough without me to scrape by for one day, as long as they have advanced notice.

millhouse · Mar 7, 2011

That's CRAZY!! Ya know... it would be different if the pay was at least decent. I have stressed and stressed about this and have just come to the realization that teachers and other staff at the school take off when they are sick or have a sick child, it should be no different for me. If I am given sick time, I should be able to take it. I have never worked in this type of environment before and it stinks that the kids have to suffer from it... but MY kid is not gonna suffer from it anymore.

Purple_Scrubs, BSN, RN · Mar 9, 2011

I have gone to work before in the throes of kidney stone pain, gave noon meds, then left to go straight to the ER. It is ridiculous. I have been out the last 2 days with strep, no sub of course, and I am amazed that everything went fine. I have different staff members to cover for different issues (a couple people cover meds, one staff member covers catheterizations, another for the diabetic student), so no one person is overburdened. It still makes for a very bad day for them

I do not miss unless absolutely necessary. A couple times my husband and I have gotten into arguments because I felt unwell and he wanted me to stay home, but I insisted I was going to work (no fever or inability to control body functions...I go to work!) A few days ago they had the story on our evening news where a sub overdosed a kid on heart meds and he ended up in the PICU, and I sat bolt upright in bed, hollering at him "See, see, THAT is why I never call in sick!!!" He gets it now! Here's the link to that story if y'all didn't see it. VERY scary!

http://www.myfoxdfw.com/dpp/news/030211-sub-gives-boy-medicine-overdose

SchoolNurseBSN · Mar 10, 2011

I have been looking everywhere online for that story. Thanks for posting the link. My mom had mentioned she saw it on the news but did not know the details.

It IS SO scary to delegate! However, we are still human beings. We get sick, we need to eat, we need to use the restroom. We are not robots - though many in the buuilding seem to think we are.

millhouse · Mar 10, 2011

It's sad that something tragic is going to have to happen to cause change. :mad:

mycsm · Mar 15, 2011

I understand we all feel this allegiance to be at work every day... I love my job and hate leaving it to anyone to take care of "my" kids, with that said, please remember YOUR family needs to come first. You will not be held liable in ANY WAY if something tragic should happen while you were out. You follow protocol: call in sick and return the next day. If you just dont show up, Different story, but if the teachers can call out and the prinicpal can call out, why cant the nurse. You are alotted sick days for a reason, use them. We are not hired to save the world, especially at the expense of your own children.

nightie-night nurse · Mar 24, 2011

I was actually told by my director that it is difficult to find a sub for my clinic and many of the ladies who have subbed for me before will not come back. They say because it is very busy and the special needs kids have complex needs. The director actually asked me to contact my principal and ask him to let the teachers know there will be a sub and to "please be nice to her". I did, but he never sent an email out about it. I thought it was a very odd request to say the least. :confused:

mycsm · Mar 25, 2011

If the school is unable to find a sub, ask the parents of the child to come in and give their child (AND ONLY THEIR CHILD) the medication. The parent will complain but the nurse is entitled to sick days/personal days..That is why they give them. Police officers, firemen, postal employees, all take sick days. Why can't school nurses:rolleyes:

BSNinTX · Apr 1, 2011

So, I am a substitute school nurse. When my daugher started K last year, my school nurse asked me to apply to be a sub Basically so she would have someone she could call. When she knows she needs to be out in advance, she calls me to coordinate a date. I can usually accommodate if I have enough time to make arrangements with my 'real' job's schedule.

I have also just finished six months of preceptorship for my graduate degree with the head nurse of our district (who is also assigned a campus, the largest in the district). We discussed this issue at length. We have about a half-dozen subs on our list, severl of whom have only one, or a few, campuses that they will cover. For some, it is a matter of distance; for $90 a day, I would think twice about driving 30 miles each way to sub, too. For me, when I sub, it has nothing to do with the money (although that is a little bonus) but rather my personal desire not to see a campus without a nurse if it can be avoided.

Many schools place a para in the office in the absence of the nurse. Sometimes it is because no nurse is available. Sometimes it is because the principal has decided that a sub nurse is not needed. In either case, the person covering the office is acting as an agent of the principal rather than having been delegated by the nurse. That needs to be clear in case of liability.

Ultimately, one of the major reasons (in my district, at least) that it is hard to get sub nurses in the office is basic ol' money. At $11.25 an hour, it's hard to get someone in.