Should I stay or should I go?

[ladypeaches4]

Hi everyone, 

I am currently a preschool nurse at a special ED building with about 60 students. I've been a nurse about 9 years and have done school nursing in the past at an elementary school through district and another private preschool. I'm really struggling feeling anxious about being the only medical provider on site. Are there any trainings you guys can recommend to make me feel more comfortable? Also I am having a lot of issues with teachers giving me a hard time about sending kids home, always pushing for them to go home as well as an extremely irate parent that has threatened to call the state department of ED on me. I absolutely adore the kids, and truly enjoy working with them. Do I stick it out or find something else? I feel very discouraged. Thank you so much! 

[k1p1ssk, BSN, RN]

So much of school nursing and really any nursing gig where the majority of co-workers are non-medical, is finding a workplace where your colleagues take you seriously and the social environment is non-toxic/the workplace culture is one of kindness and camaraderie.

Are the teachers nasty to each other, too? Or is it clique-y there in general? If that's the case, then I'd probably cut my losses and look for something else - you, independently, are likely not going to be able to change the culture of the facility by yourself. 

If you feel like that isn't necessarily the case and you're interested in seeing if you can make some changes, then I'd suggest looking at your workplace policies surrounding exclusion from school, or the state's exclusion rules if that's what you're expected to follow. You may need an administrators help in reminding staff of these policies and that your judgement needs to be respected.

I, too, have had trouble with our pre-k teachers pushing back on whether or not a kid should be allowed to come/allowed to stay and I really put my foot down and just held the line of "This student's symptoms do not meet exclusion criteria, I am not sending them home." I will say, I did compromise and told the teachers that I will call the parent, explain the situation, and give them the option to pick their kid up early, but that if the parent decides to come, the kid is remaining in class until the parent arrives, and if the parent says no, then the kid stays.  This has improved things dramatically for me. The nurse at the other elementary school in my district has started doing the same, and it seems we're all happier for it! 

As far as the irate parent, I can't really give you advice without knowing why they were so mad! But we all get a few of those a year, and 99.9% of the time, they forget about it as soon as they need something from you. If you feel confident in your why for whatever it was, then I wouldn't sweat it too much.