Telehealth Visits in School Nurse Office

scuba nurse, BSN, MSN, RN · Nov 9, 2020

Is the parent present? Why would you be doing this?

BrisketRN, BSN, RN · Nov 9, 2020

We do not. I did have a high school student ask if she could do a telehealth call in my office during her lunch period. Good kid, I said sure, why not?

CanIcallmymom, BSN, RN · Nov 9, 2020

It is being implemented in some schools here, so I was curious. I recently had an interview with a high school closer to where I live who said they are implementing them in the next few weeks!! Was just hoping to hear of some experiences from other nurses who might be doing them.

3 hours ago, scuba nurse said:

Is the parent present? Why would you be doing this?

The parent is not present. I don't have all the details yet, but I assume there will be consents completed prior to allowing.

JenTheSchoolRN, BSN, RN · Nov 10, 2020

Yep, my question would be about parent consent. Frankly, if I got that and a kid wanted to use my office and help to facilitate, I'm all for it! If I had a HS student that is 18 and asked to do that, I'd support it. I already help older HS students made their own doctor appointments.

@CanIcallmymom - curious about more details when you get them.

CanIcallmymom, BSN, RN · Nov 10, 2020

2 hours ago, JenTheSchoolRN said:

Yep, my question would be about parent consent. Frankly, if I got that and a kid wanted to use my office and help to facilitate, I'm all for it! If I had a HS student that is 18 and asked to do that, I'd support it. I already help older HS students made their own doctor appointments.

@CanIcallmymom - curious about more details when you get them.

If I happen to get more details I will certainly let you all know. I don't have a problem facilitating the visits either. My questions are...do I have to chart in school system AND in another program for the doctor visit? I do know the school is building a mini private room within that nurse's office to facilitate the visits in private. The nurse would be taking pictures, inserting otoscopes for pictures, taking all vitals... It would be half hands on by nurse and half televisit. I am sure some things are automatically excluded from qualifying for the visit, like abdominal pain for instance. Doc wouldn't be able to palpate abdomen, so I assume they'd want an in person visit for any scenario like that.

ruby_jane, BSN, RN · Nov 10, 2020

On 11/7/2020 at 3:25 PM, CanIcallmymom said:

Have any of you implemented Telehealth doctor visits in your schools? If so, how is it going?

A few of our schools have the fancy COW provided by our Children's hospital and they do telehealth visits. Obviously less now because with symptoms the provider is usually referring the parent to a testing site. The parent does not have to be physically present. I don't have one in my clinic but I can refer parents to take their students to the site that does have telehealth capacity. But again, this year....parents are taking the kid for a swab. Or several swabs.

CanIcallmymom, BSN, RN · Nov 10, 2020

Just now, ruby_jane said:

A few of our schools have the fancy COW provided by our Children's hospital and they do telehealth visits. Obviously less now because with symptoms the provider is usually referring the parent to a testing site. The parent does not have to be physically present. I don't have one in my clinic but I can refer parents to take their students to the site that does have telehealth capacity. But again, this year....parents are taking the kid for a swab. Or several swabs.

They're going to be doing swabs as well sometime this year. So that might cut down some of that.