Screening PK kids

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I just screened my first PK class for the year, and I am EXHAUSTED!!!! I did not remember how much harder it is for the little ones who have never done this before. I was only at it for an hour and a half and I am spent! I did quickly decide that for the ones who just aren't getting it, I just did height and weight and will try vision and hearing again after winter break. Turned out there were only 4 from a class of 22 that I will need to go back and catch again. Thankfully, this was my last class to screen for today, or I am not sure I would make it! Next week I have a PK and a 3rd that I can spread over the course of the week, then the following week the last PK and the last 3rd, plus a few that were absent when I first screened their class or newly enrolled then I AM DONE WITH SCREENING!!! Cannot wait to have it over with so I can focus on other things. How is everyone else's screenings going?

Specializes in Med Surg, School Nurse.

I just want to scream when I think about how many screenings I have yet to do. I am in a very large school and do not have an adequate place to do hearing. I have 1200 elem. students PK-6th. Last year I had screeners come in and do most of the screenings. This year there are no screeners. I was given a nurse assist on Mondays and an RN on Wednesdays and Thursdays. They have taken my RN already and put her back at her school of 400 students where she has been for the last 17 years under title 1. Where is the equity. She is on the same pay scale as I am but I have 3 times as many students. Was told that they should have never pulled her from her school because her school is Title 1.

Anyway, I have screened 8 sections of Kindergarten and done their recreenings. And have done first screenings on 4 of the 6 sections of 5th grade and completed 1 section of 1st grade. This means that I still have 8 sections of 3rd graders, 7 sections of 1st graders, 2 sections of 5th graders and my 88 preschoolers to do.

Life is just no fair. I work about 10 hours a day. 10 persent of our student population is special ed so there are re-evals to do on them and I have about 20 SST referrals waiting for my attention. I have not inputed all of my medications nor have I even started on health management plans or health codes. I have made a list of students with health conditions and I have 82 asmatics, 10 students with seizures of which 3 take seizure meds daily at school. And multipe other health conditions. I have a child on continuous tube feed and another with a g=tube which receives meds and bolus feed daily.

Do I have a right to whine. I absolutely do and so here it is. Wha Wha Wha!!!. I envy those school nurses that leave right on time every day and sometimes a little early on Fridays.

Are there any other nurses out there in the same boat as me? I am sure there are and I feel for you. The only saving grace is that the district I work in pays well. About what I was earning in the hospital. Oh and did I mention that my students are the lowest income area in the city. I take good care of them. No one I care for goes without seeing a doctor if they don't have Medicare or CHIPS. I do a lot of referrals to community resources. I feel good that I can help these kids and their families. It is very rewarding to me. I am definately needed and make a difference. Also I get to see a lot of different medical things with this population of students.

The question is, do anyone of you have a little time to spare after school that you could come volunteer some time to help me catch up? I am desperate. HA HA HA HA Just kidding.

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Wow. You can only do what you can do. You should not be working 10 hours a day. As long as you try to correct this staffing by killing yourself they are not going to change anything. If your students are the poorest, why isn't your school Title 1 also?

Are you reporting to your supervisor in writing how far behind you are?

Can you partner with a school of nursing to send you students to assist?

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I have almost all my 350+ 10th graders h/v completed (just 3 or 4 more to catch up with) and all my referrals out. It was only by the grace of God that this year an another nurse helped me out and we did a mass screening on 2 days. (Side note: We did the screenings AND saw students! It was a nightmare and I ended up having chest pain and high BP most of that week. My doctor ordered a stress test the following week. The test came back normal and my doctor said my symptoms were stress related.) I have my elementary kids done except for the pre-k, and all my referrals out.

Our school district went to a new computer system this year (Lumen - hate it so far) and our immunizations are still messed up in the system. I am scared to enter the h/v results into the computer for fear that they will "get lost" like some of our immunizations have. (That is another subject for another post). So, as soon as I get the go ahead from our supervisor, I will begin entering h/v data into the computer - about 475 students. UGH!

This year we are also required to do Double Blind E on a few of the grades (cant remember which ones right now) and I havent done that. Our district has to share 2 kits so i am in line for my turn.

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Specializes in School Nursing.

Well, I got my PK'ers done before the break, but I still have one and a half 3rd grade classes, plus a bunch of re-screens. This is the first year I have not been done or almost done by Winter Break :( The H1N1 outbreak in Sept/Oct delayed me some, but I hate being this behind. Trying very hard not to dwell on it and enjoy my break. I keep telling myself I can only do what I can do, but that little voice in my head keeps telling me I can do more! Maybe I did slack a little this year, I dunno. Usually I can only screen for an hour or so before I get physically and mentally exhausted. Plus my principal wants me to screen during their art/music/PE time so I only get about 45 mintues. I guess I will have to start doing 2-3 classes in a day instead of 1-2. Oh well, it will get done and there is always next year to improve!

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this year we are also required to do double blind e on a few of the grades (cant remember which ones right now) and i havent done that. our district has to share 2 kits so i am in line for my turn.

correction on above post i made: i meant random dot e!! not double blind e (duh!) it was late when i was posting - sorry!

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