Staff that gets injured on the job.

[MrsNurse08]

Good morning my fellow school nurses friends,

Walked in school today and before I could put my bags down, the Principal stopped me and ask could I go to room 705. I asked her what's going on and she stated that the teacher dropped a Mac book on her foot. I said okay the only thing I could do for her is to give ice. The principal than stated on she already have ice and she just wanted me to see if it's broken. Okay our school policy is that I'm their for the students and if any staff have an injury on the job they will have to call the company's nurse/workman comp. The principal seems to not believe and than went on to say I just want you to look at and see if it's broke. I informed the Principal that I can not make medical decisions for your staff or any grown adults and that she will have to go to get an x-ray if she feels it is broken. The Principal than called the big boss and thank God the big boss backed me up.:) So what is you guys policy on helping the staff if injured on the job?

[bsyrn, ASN, RN]

I take care of staff illness/injuries. If they are injured on the job, they fill out the paperwork with the secretary. I will give my advise, as adults, they can listen or decide not to. I keep a log book for documentation purposes.

[BrisketRN, BSN, RN]

I'm at a private school so my contract actually includes caring for staff when necessary. I obviously stay within my scope and don't bring out my magic x-ray eyes, but I'll treat injuries as I would with students (except the calling mom part. ha). I also have ibuprofen, acetaminophen, and Tums available to staff. I don't give it to them, but they know where it's kept and can come in and grab it as needed.

[Eleven011]

Were you supposed to wheel your portable xray machine down the hall and check it out???

I will help out staff when I can. Just this morning, had a staff member that got stung by a wasp, she had a bad reaction as a child. I gave her an ice pack, some sting relief ointment, and let her rest here until we were sure risk of anything serious had passed. But I then told her to use her judgement and seek medical attention is she started feeling different. A potential broken foot?? I just tell them what I see - no obvious injury/no swelling/no bone sticking out, but only they know how bad it hurts and can decided if they need to be checked out by a dr.

[MrsNurse08]

Yeah I mean I will give ice and a band aid/first aid but I'm not going to give medical advice. We have a company nurse that the staff calls to guide them on what to do.

[MrsNurse08]

BiscuitRN said:

I'm at a private school so my contract actually includes caring for staff when necessary. I obviously stay within my scope and don't bring out my magic x-ray eyes, but I'll treat injuries as I would with students (except the calling mom part. ha). I also have ibuprofen, acetaminophen, and Tums available to staff. I don't give it to them, but they know where it's kept and can come in and grab it as needed.

Yeah I mean I will give ice and a band aid/first aid but I'm not going to give medical advice. We have a company nurse that the staff calls to guide them on what to do.

[MrsNurse08]

Eleven011 said:

Were you supposed to wheel your portable xray machine down the hall and check it out???

I will help out staff when I can. Just this morning, had a staff member that got stung by a wasp, she had a bad reaction as a child. I gave her an ice pack, some sting relief ointment, and let her rest here until we were sure risk of anything serious had passed. But I then told her to use her judgement and seek medical attention is she started feeling different. A potential broken foot?? I just tell them what I see - no obvious injury/no swelling/no bone sticking out, but only they know how bad it hurts and can decided if they need to be checked out by a Dr.

Yeah that's what I tried to inform them on. I told the Principal that the teacher will have to make that decision to go get x-ray but it looked fine to me but...

[OldDude]

Ugh...I'm stuck with attending to anyone injured on the premises or in some kind of medical emergency.

[OyWithThePoodles, RN]

I will check staff out, but it usually ends in "I would go have it checked out if you are concerned". Of course if it happened on school property they have to fill out a staff incident report. Either way, whether you have another company nurse or not, you do not have x-ray vision. I probably walked in and said "I'm not able to tell if it is broken, if you are concerned, have it checked out."

But having a company nurse that deals with staff injuries on the job ties your hands. You did the right thing in my opinion. You don't want to step on anyones toes and interfere with workman's comp and I'm glad your boss backed you up.

Things like small cuts that a band-aid can fix I would probably do just to create a good rapport, but the big things like that I would refer to the company nurse.

[beachynurse, ASN, BSN]

If a staff member gets injured on the premises, I am responsible for at least assessing the situation and providing minor first aid. If they need to be seen, I will make the suggestion, and obtain the appropriate paperwork from the office manager and they take it from there. The staff member has the ultimatte decision about being seen.

[Supernrse01, BSN]

I take care of staff illness and injury, when necessary or when there is an emergency. I do what I can safely do in the school setting and within my scope and then give them advice based on what is going on, i.e., "you should go for further evaluation", "You should contact your physician", etc... I leave the final decision on what they are going to do on them. Not my circus, not my monkeys.

[Amethya]

Check staff out, just advise them to go to doctor if they feel there's something wrong. I fill out an incident report.