secretary and absences

[palli]

I have asked my secretary a million times to NOT put the reason why kid are absent on the school wide attendance list. The teachers do not need to know if someone has her period or someone is home with conjunctivitis or lice. I have said time and time again, it is something private that the parents are telling and teachers do not need to know. Admin has already spoken to her and nothing works..."Its just so ridiculous" (said in my best Ricky Ricardo voice )

[MrNurse(x2), ADN]

See Old Dude's synopsis in School Shooting post. Time for accountability. This should be a disciplinary issue at this point.

[BeckyESRN]

Our secretary only uses; sick, appointment, funeral, or away(most often). Usually they all say "left message" because no one answers their phone! If she were writing out each student's issue, I would not be happy.

[JenTheSchoolRN, BSN, RN]

We use absence codes and they include medical, sick, away, college visit (excused), and bereavement. No other details given.

[ruby_jane, BSN, RN]

Ditto to Jen.... technically we're not a covered entity so we can't say the magic word "HIPAA" but that secretary is certainly personally violating the individual childrens' privacy, especially in the face of a directive to cease and desist. Broad categories, people!

[cooties_are_real]

Our's is nurse's sent home. No detail. Doesn't that fall under confidentiality even if parent tell her?

[AdobeRN]

I personally like it when our data clerk puts in the whatever is wrong with the kids - Elementary school here...she will use ill, fever, strep, Flu, pneumonia, lice, pink eye etc. I find nothing wrong with it - I have no idea if individual teachers can see the list or if they can only see their own class.

Our health department has us help track "influenza like illnesses" & the Flu - we have to send in a weekly report of numbers of ILI/flu for our school. With the data clerk recording her info this way helps me give the proper info to the Health dept. I also like it so I can run classroom, grade etc reports to see if are having unusual amounts of whatever the illness is for the week - I can then communicate to the teachers - "hey, remind students to wash hands more often, use kleenex, blah blah blah because you have a high number of strep, flu, pink eye etc etc reports from your class"

[JenTheSchoolRN, BSN, RN]

I personally like it when our data clerk puts in the whatever is wrong with the kids - Elementary school here...she will use ill, fever, strep, Flu, pneumonia, lice, pink eye etc. I find nothing wrong with it - I have no idea if individual teachers can see the list or if they can only see their own class.

Our health department has us help track "influenza like illnesses" & the Flu - we have to send in a weekly report of numbers of ILI/flu for our school. With the data clerk recording her info this way helps me give the proper info to the Health dept. I also like it so I can run classroom, grade etc reports to see if are having unusual amounts of whatever the illness is for the week - I can then communicate to the teachers - "hey, remind students to wash hands more often, use kleenex, blah blah blah because you have a high number of strep, flu, pink eye etc etc reports from your class"

See my office manager will e-mail me privately if a re-portable illness was the cause of a student's absence (I told what specifically I was tracking - mainly confirmed lab cases of the flu last year). I love her.

[Eleven011]

Our secretaries don't go into alot of detail, but they do share some things. Most common are - ill/sick, family, out of town, migraine, fever, pnuemonia, strep, lice, nurse sent home, or left message. Stuff gets around pretty quickly here - its a small school.

[SaltineQueen]

I personally like it when our data clerk puts in the whatever is wrong with the kids - Elementary school here...she will use ill, fever, strep, Flu, pneumonia, lice, pink eye etc. I find nothing wrong with it - I have no idea if individual teachers can see the list or if they can only see their own class.

Our health department has us help track "influenza like illnesses" & the Flu - we have to send in a weekly report of numbers of ILI/flu for our school. With the data clerk recording her info this way helps me give the proper info to the Health dept. I also like it so I can run classroom, grade etc reports to see if are having unusual amounts of whatever the illness is for the week - I can then communicate to the teachers - "hey, remind students to wash hands more often, use kleenex, blah blah blah because you have a high number of strep, flu, pink eye etc etc reports from your class"

I think it's different for elementary schools. My attendance person puts specifics if the parent tells us, which I like for tracking reasons, but we're the only people who see that list. In middle or high schools, where kids are shuffling from teacher to teacher and multiple people see kids in a day, I can see why publishing the list to all staff is necessary. But all those people don't need specifics.

[Amethya]

I just put "Sent home." That's it.

[OyWithThePoodles, RN]

Ours will put "sick" or "family" if it was a death. But that list stays at her desk. She will let me know the specific illness if the parent told her, and the teacher if it is something contagious that she should watch other kiddos for.