School Nurse Mentoring Program?

[MHDNURSE]

Does your state/district have a mentoring program for new school nurses? Have you been either a mentor or mentee? Our district is looking into starting one, with me as the person in charge of spearheading this ?. I actually LOVE teaching and mentoring but I also know that one of the main reasons we have this forum is because in real life and in our day to day we don't have the luxury of an actual orientation or mentorship. I am hoping to change that in my district. It is sadly stemming from a current school nurse within the district who has been doing this for many years and we are only now aware at how ineffective and at times putting herself and students at risk, but somehow has just been VERY lucky. The new principal brought it to light after several new parents called in the first week of school and shared they were uncomfortable and nervous. It's a long story. So....here I am being volunteered to come up with a way to mentor someone set in her ways, but also focus on a more widely used mentorship program to new nurses within the district. I would love any feedback from those who have BTDT.

[BettyGirard, BSN]

Officially, we don't. Our supervisor nurse does tend to spend a lot of time with the new ones making sure they are set.

When we brought on Trini this year in her role, I spend a reasonable amount of time helping her learn her job duties. I'm also trying to keep her informed of what I do, so that if she has to cover for me, she can.

[k1p1ssk, BSN, RN]

When I joined our district last year the previous nurse in my position (who retired) agreed to be my mentor. I bet that had she not agreed, another nurse in the district would have done so. Our district has a new teacher mentoring program (2-3 years for brand new teachers, 1 year for new to the district teachers who have at least 2 years of teaching experience), and since we share the teacher contract with a couple of caveats, this program is sort of "ported over". I had my mentor for 1 year due to my previous experience. It is certainly a luxury.

[iggywench, BSN, RN]

We have a 2-year mentoring program in my district, but there are really no guidelines. New nurses get about 1/2 day of training on our software, and a full day of inservice with all of the nurses in our district; that's pretty much it. I'm acting as a mentor for a new nurse, and she just calls me when she has questions. There's no time set aside for me to go to her school, and I don't have a checklist of things to cover with her. Both of those things would be handy, though.

[newschoolnurse2019]

I am a brand new school nurse and have gotten by so far with a checklist and calling the previous nurse that moved to different school district. My days are very busy and the teachers are very helpful with guiding me with what I need to for them. I am getting my schedule in place with my diabetics as they come first. I am hopefully attending a new school nurse conference in October but for now "I don't know what I don't know." Any advice is always welcome.

thank you