This is nothing but a rant. But sometimes you just feel better after typing all of your frustrations away...
I am a new school nurse this year, I was hired in August to cover 2 small elementary schools. I work 1/2 the day at one school and then travel to the second school for the 2nd half of the day. We have a district health coordinator who is my supervisor. Each school has a principal that I work with as well for that schools related issues. Any pay/time/scheduling/general nursing issues or concerns I work with the health coordinator.
This year has been such a struggle. I have been confronted by both principals over my schedule/ time related issues, and not in a nice way. I have missed several days this year for a miscarriage and now I am currently pregnant again, high risk pregnancy so I do miss several times for appointments. One of the principals went off on me one day because I told her I would be out for the following day for an appointment and she said that she thought that I had missed too many days this year and she didn't see how I was getting paid for all of them, she then told me that she keeps track of the days that I miss and it exceeded the number of sick days I am allotted. (I am in communication will HR and my supervisors about all of my appointments and time off and they are totally fine with it!) I make appointments weeks in advance and always make sure I have coverage.
There have been several occasions where I have sent a child back to class who appears to not be sick and afebrile, teacher and/or principal goes behind my back and sends them home anyways and then puts on their attendance records that it was excused by the nurse. And then there have been times when I have sent a child home and she will question why I sent them home, then proceed to tell me that I should not have sent them.
There has been times when I have suggested them not do certain things and they completely disregard anything I am saying, like a student takes meds at 730 at school and he told me one morning that his mom had given him his meds already, I couldn't get mom on the phone so I didn't give him medications, Principal demanded I give it to him anyways, I refused and then she said that she would just give it to him herself. Thankfully I told her that I would write it up as a medication error if she did that so she didn't do it.
Another time she told me that I was going to treat a kids hair for head lice while she was at school and I refused. She told me that she would just find another staff member that would, I told her that it would be like her administering an OTC med without an order or not from parent and that it would be a medication error, she did it anyways.
And then an even bigger situation came up yesterday, I can't go into great detail, but.. there was an issue regarding my schedule, she wanted me to stay all day at her school, with it being the end of the year I have a lot of work to get finished up at both schools. What she wanted me to stay and do was NOTHING related to my job at all. A lady that I work closely with covered me for the thing that she wanted me to stay for. I get to my second school and I receive a very unprofessional and down right rude email from her about me not being at her school all day. I very professionally emailed her back and let it go. I came in this morning and she went off on me again. My supervisors were aware of situation and agreed with me. I can get over the pettiness because that is what 99% of this is. But one thing was said yesterday that really upset me. She came into my office when I was gone and was talking about me to a lady that I share an office with and her exact words to her were "Well I guess she doesn't really want to be a nurse anymore"
How dare her? I have dealt with so much from her this year, she has pretty much put me through hell, but out of all of the things this is the lowest. You can talk about me all that you want to but do not throw my title around like that. It's not a reward that you can take from me like I am a child. Nursing is my life and my passion and shame on her for even saying such things. I want so badly to address this with her but I do not want to throw my office roommate under the bus.
The good news is that I feel much better after typing this, we only have 14 days left and I will not be returning to this school next year, I will either be changing jobs all together or there is a big possibility of a position opening at another school in my district with a nice principal
