Vision/hearing

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Hey everyone! I'm a new school nurse at an elementary school. I have decided it is time to get going on my vision and hearing screening. My school is around 900 kiddos pk-4. The pk, k, 1st and 3rd have to be screened as well as new students to the district. I have a clinic assistant who just got certified in both vision and hearing. My dilemma is this: my clinic stays steadily busy throughout the day with an average of 30-40 kiddos usually. I had hoped my clinic assistant and I could go down to the conference room (team rooms for each grade) and knock out one class per day until we are done. I have a walkie talkie and told the front desk to call me on it if any student comes down I can go to clinic. Well that didn't work out so well. I ended up being called down to clinic and stayed there the remainder while my assistant finished all screenings herself. As you may know, elementary kiddos can be quite wiggly and hard to focus and it's difficult with just one person to get these done quickly alone. My hope was her and I doing it together, but I don't think the front desk is happy with having to keep an eye on my clinic (right next door).....my next idea was to try doing screenings in my clinic and just have my assistant walk a group of 5 down at a time until we finish a class. Advice please!!! Apparently the old nurse did all the screenings alone in the team rooms and her assistant watched the clinic. My clinic assistant and I are both new to the school and screenings and I don't feel as though she should be left for an hour to watch clinic alone or have to manage all those screenings alone either. What gives??

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Welcome to the fun, jen! You might make sure all classrooms have bandaid boxes and the playground supervisors carry bandaids in their fanny packs. Let teachers know you will be out doing screenings and to please only send actual bleeding, wheezing, vomiting or seizing children to the health room until you have completed the task. The office staff should be able to cover and call you for any true emergency. I'll bet you would cover for them if they got swamped…

Good luck!

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Specializes in Pediatrics Retired.

In my district we have HS, JH, Intermediate, and 4 elementary schools. We have a nurse on each campus. When a screening date is set for a school all the district nurses attempt to get a sub for that day, go to that school, and knock out all the screenings for that campus in one day - except absentees of course. We did my campus today...we screened almost 500 kids.

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Great idea! I will just send an email out and ask that they only send emergent kiddos while I'm screening in the clinic. I'm not sure why I didn't think of this. I'm sure over time I'll learn the tricks of the trade :) thank you!!

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Old dude, I wish we could do this!!! I remember when I was a kid, they did mass screenings at my school. I feel like we have been left to do whatever works for us. I am proud to say I only have 18 kids now past due on immunizations. 4 weeks of working hard towards that! I think my next year will be much smoother, at least that's what I keep telling myself. :yes:

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Specializes in school nurse.

Lock the clinic door, turn out the lights, post a sign reminding people that today is screening day and that if case of emergency the main office will contact you. (Do you have walkie-talkies?) E-mail blast the staff a couple of times before that date to remind them about what's coming up...

Inevitably, a teacher will classify something ridiculous as an emergency, but hey, hopefully that type of scenario will be infrequent.

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Specializes in Pediatrics Retired.

Hang tough - June is just around the corner.

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All of the above are great suggestions - I would just see what works for you. I do all of my own screenings - elementary K-5 ~750 kids. We screen K,1,3,5 + any new students to the district. I start with the oldest and work my way down. I usually can do 1 class per day, first thing in the morning - takes about an hour or so, a little more for the kinders. I have the teacher send 2-3 kids at a time as I send one back to class they are supposed to send me one to keep the flow going. I do send out an email to the staff - stating please do not send kids to the clinic unless vomiting, bleeding or an emergency for the first hour or so - seems to help a bit.

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Specializes in Telemetry, Gastroenterology, School Nrs.

I screen our Elementary kids during their library time, in a conference room that is in the library. That saves the time of them walking to see me and keeps them all in one place! It takes a little longer to get them all in, but the benefits outweigh the length of time. While I am screening, the clinic door is closed and students aren't seen, unless it is an emergency. Generally, the secretary will send the student to the library if she feels it is something that should be addressed before I finish the screenings. This has worked out well.

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I'll be starting my screenings soon too. This is my first year to do them alone so hopefully I'll get it done smoothly (fingers crossed). My saving grace is that I allow nursing students from the local colleges to come help me with the screenings. It gives me extra help and gets them some clinical hours in as well. If y'all have some nursing schools close by, maybe you can reach out to them for some extra help if your admins will let you. Hopefully your office personnel will also step up and help when needed as well. Its not like WE make the rules about the screenings anyways....Good luck and welcome to school nursing!

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Thank you everyone! Today I screened another class this time my assistant was in a quiet room across the hall. She brought 5 down and as she finished hearing she sent them across the hall for me to weigh and measure, by the time that was finished she was screening their vision and she walked them back to class and grabbed another 5. We got the whole class down in a little over an hour first thing in the morning. A couple minor complaints trickled in but I sent them on their way quickly and resumed testing. The front office staff are very nice but they are somewhat used to the old nurse who had many years of experience and probably much faster than me, who did it all by herself. I feel as though I'm left to my own devices so I will continue to plug away, one class at a time.

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I did my vision today with 7th graders I sent email last week twice and again this morning but it didn't work every time I went to my office to grab something or use bathroom kids were coming in! These kids were coming in with headaches stomachache nothing serious. I was trying to do hearing screening in my office because it's quiet and same thing was happening. Finally I said " are you bleeding do you have anything broken"? I sent them out! I feel bad but jeez why do they send down all these minor problems?? And when I am screening??

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