School Nurse/Vaccines

[Tocino]

In my state, school nurses are not allowed to give vaccines. 

I respect your opinion about vaccines, however I highly suggest to not let your personal opinion hinder your work. I understand that you did your own research but so does all the researchers and specialists who put their own career and life to provide us with scientific based and facts of vaccines. (sorry for the grammar, English is not my first language)

[CommunityRNBSN, BSN, RN]

We do not give vaccines in schools in my state. However, my state does not allow any religious/philosophical objections to vaccines (as of this year), so you have to bar children from starting until they have a catch-up schedule in process. You, as an anti-vaxxer, would face a moral dilemma every single day, so I recommend you find another specialty.

[Idealista]

All of the major nursing bodies have made their position quite clear. Nurses are accountable for the information they dispense in the healthcare realm. Since you feel so strongly about this - it would be almost impossible for you to explain your stance to anyone (school, parent or student) without violating the Nursing Code of Ethics and thereby jeopardizing your license.

"When identifying themselves by their profession, nurses are professionally accountable for the information they provide to the public," the organizations continued. "Any nurse who violates their state nurse practice act or threatens the health and safety of the public through the dissemination of misleading or incorrect information pertaining to COVID-19, vaccines and associated treatment through verbal or written methods may be disciplined by their board of nursing."

[MaxAttack, BSN, RN]

I'm curious if your independent research took into account both sides of this debate. Confirmation bias is a real thing and it jeopardizes the safety of everyone and the trust in our healthcare system. There's a lot of in vitro and animal studies that are concerning that never panned out in real-world applications but despite that there are those making fortunes by having people believe that those studies are still valid against the overwhelming weight of evidence that shows the benefits outweigh the risks in most scenarios.

I can only urge you to look at your own biases and really evaluate the entirety of evidence available. Otherwise I agree with the above; this seems like it would not be an ideal fit.

[arlingtonnurse]

Agree with above comment that school nursing might not be best for you.  One of the most aggravating parts of the job is chasing parents for vaccinations and this would be harder and more aggravating if you didn't believe in them.

That being said, your question was, do you need to administer them? Answer is no.  I work within the public health department so do many vaccines at community clinics but never in the school health office. 

[Eleven011]

I can't speak for every position, but for the majority, we don't give vaccinations in our office. However, I do check the immunization status of all incoming Kindergarden, 6th grade and New to district students.   I call and encourage parents to get their children vaccinated, and send home information from our Dept of Health about required vaccinations.   My school expects me to a high percentage of compliance with required vaccinations.   It is a good portion of my job.   Like the previous poster stated, if your views don't align with your state requirements or your schools beliefs, you might not be happy in a school nurse position.  

[NurseMMJ]

I cannot speak for your state however, in the state of Ohio, No we do not give vaccines at the school.  We do however track immunizations for the district to assure that the students are up to date.  

I have to agree with my fellow nurses above.  If you do not believe in vaccinations, you should probably not pursue a career in school nursing.  If you do not believe in evidence based practices such as the efficacy of vaccinations to reduce the effects of serious disease or illness. 

[beachynurse, ASN, BSN]

A large part of what I do is chasing down parents of students with non-compliant immunization records. If you don't believe in immunizations, are you going to be able to enforce your divisions policies for non-compliance? Would you be able to exclude a student from school because they did not have all of their shots? This is all part of what we do, will your beliefs get in the way? If so, this might not be the job for you.

[abbnurse]

Tocino said:

In my state, school nurses are not allowed to give vaccines. 

I respect your opinion about vaccines, however I highly suggest to not let your personal opinion hinder your work. I understand that you did your own research but so does all the researchers and specialists who put their own career and life to provide us with scientific based and facts of vaccines. (sorry for the grammar, English is not my first language)

??well said, Tocino ! 

[NurseK12]

Honestly, if you are against vaccinations then I am not sure school nursing would be the right specialty for you. A lot of what we do is based on evidence based best practices and trusting the scientific process and if you do not then it may be best to find a different role. 

[Marcia Worthy]

When I worked through the commission as a school nurse we did not give vaccines. In our schools (I'm in New Jersey) students are allowed do to have religious exemptions and I have worked with many nonpublic, religious schools where most students had exemptions. 

[jonnysangel777, LPN, LVN]

In the 2 school districts I worked for we did not give any vaccines. We did assist the health tech with maintaining immunization records of the students. The RNs do health screenings like vision and hearing, the LVNs do the diabetic management, RNs and LVNs do trach care, gt care and feedings, and ostomy and cath care, and we do have medical classrm aides in one district where they are trained to also do TFs and ostomy care, and then lastly the health techs manage most of the day to day students who come to the office not feeling well.