School Policies

[JB]

I am a new school nurse, but I am not new to pediatrics. I need some guidence in writting policies for my new school. If someone knows of a good policy book that I could use I would love to hear about it. I already belong to the National Association of School Nurses and found some of their material quite helpful. Thanks!

[maurice2]

Hi

I think i have same problem,only for 2 months working as a school nurse and i need guidence for set up health unit. What kind of medicine or equepment for first aid can i use ? so if got your information can you please share with me too.

Best regards

Nilufer

[MollyJ]

Greetings to both of you!

TX nurse, in KS we have a school health nurse consultant at the state level (in the dept of health for us) and I would see if you have a similar position. That individual should direct you to resources. A time honored thing to do is to query districts that are similar in size to you and request their policies and see what you can see. Wow, what a daunting task! All of those new policies at once. I would concentrate on med administration policy and policies surrounding standard (state required) screenings first (and most of these would be based on state level standards).

In America, Nilufer, school nurses do not have grandiose "first aid" supplies. Typical supplies include bandaids, a small supply of gauze pads, some splinting devices such as air casts for arms and lower extemities and sanitary napkins. Emergency situations that might require alot of equipment result in an Emergency medical services call and they respond bringing all the equipment you cold hope for. Nurses in America cannot give so much as an acetaminophen tablet without a doctor's order (at least in KS) so students generally supply their meds and they are labeled by the pharmacist. SOME schols will have small caches of Acetaminophen, ibuprofen and antacid and eye drops since lots of kids wear contacts but again students need a doctor's order for the meds. (However, I shudder to see those communal bottles of eye drops, because I worked in a hospital that got rid of all multiple use eye drop bottles because [theoretically] cross contamination had resulted in an eye infection and a law suit. You might contact the International Red Cross Chapter near you and talk to them about resources for first aid. They might even have some information on school health programs (like prevention of communicable disease, first aid, safety, etc). Good luck also.