Vision and Hearing

[jess11RN]

Yay! We're back!

I am getting the feeling that it will be proposed by other specialties that I screen hearing and vision in our incoming kindergartners (ie, the kindergartners starting in the 2019-2020 school year) before this school year ends.

Do any of you participate in a kindergarten screening like this?

I love the idea of finding potential issues before the school year starts, however I have some concerns:

1-Any fails, I would be unable to rescreen unless the parent wants to bring the kid back

2-If they passed the vision "screening" parents would hesitate to bring their student for the required kindergarten opthalmological examination.

3-I screen them first thing in the fall (I complete my mass screening within the first 3 weeks of the school year starting). Anything prior to that school year wouldn't be valid, so I would have to repeat everything again (similar to what I already do for our PreK program).

I would love to hear from you guys to see what you do before I'm put on the spot later this week when we have our meeting with the kindergarten team and admin! TIA :)

[LikeTheDeadSea, MSN, RN]

I wait until this time of year to screen that age group. We don't have a preK so many of the students need to learn how to be learners and are having their first exposure to a school environment. I don't refer as many students this time of year compared to the start of the year because some of those referrals are just due to difficulty with instructions and "time at task".
The K teachers are AWESOME at having me screen students who they thing may have vision/hearing issues, however. They've been pretty accurate so far.

[BrisketRN, BSN, RN]

We screen our preschoolers, and I've just got to say it is a PROCESS. I'm not certified to screen, so we actually have someone who comes in to do it. The kids need a lot of prep work to do it (we give practice sheets to the teachers, then our screener talks with each class and they practice as a class) and there are still a lot of kids who just don't get it. We do have a lot of parents who try to hand me the vision screening form as their kindergarten eye exam requirement, so then I have to explain the difference--I've never gotten push back. Personally, I wouldn't do it if I were you.

[SchlNrsKrn]

Nope. No reason to do now if you are going to be doing again in first few weeks of school-and especially if doing in spring won't count towards their required K screening-double work for little benefit.

Adding-I'm at a 500+ student Pre-K. Screenings are supposed to be done first semester. In 20 years here, I have never done during first semester. In an "at-risk" school, the kids just don't know how to follow directions yet. Even 2nd semester there are still a TON of kids that I rescreen because they just didn't "get it" the first time. The older the kid, the more accurate the results and the fewer kids you will send that have a false-fail result.

[EnoughWithTheIce]

I would not do it either! Sounds counter productive.

[Eleven011]

We have a screening day held usually in March for the upcoming kinders. Most is acedemic, but our SLP's screen hearing and our local Lion's club does the SPOT vision screen. So not much for me to do there. I do a health screen on all the elementary kids sometime in the fall (or spring if I get behind like I am now).

[kidzcare]

19 minutes ago, BiscuitRN said:

We screen our preschoolers, and I've just got to say it is a PROCESS. I'm not certified to screen, so we actually have someone who comes in to do it. The kids need a lot of prep work to do it (we give practice sheets to the teachers, then our screener talks with each class and they practice as a class) and there are still a lot of kids who just don't get it. We do have a lot of parents who try to hand me the vision screening form as their kindergarten eye exam requirement, so then I have to explain the difference--I've never gotten push back. Personally, I wouldn't do it if I were you.

Yes, it is a PROCESS. I am the nurse on the SPED team at our preschool. 600+ preschoolers and they ALL need a screening. It takes all year to get through them all.

JessRN- I know we are in the same state and I would definitely recommend waiting for exactly the reasons you stated.

[magnoliablush, BSN, RN]

I’m in a high school, so we screen 10th graders. The local health department comes, and we split vision/hearing for that class. It’s nice to get the experience. We have a smaller school, though, so if it was large I would probably be more stressed.

ETA- I know you are doing kindergarten, and I know that’s different. If it will make the parents confused, I would not. I just wanted to offer my support.

[ruby_jane, BSN, RN]

So essentially you're screening pre-K. God help you!!!

I'm kidding of course. As others have pointed out, it seems like a waste of time if you screen the kinders in the fall.

Also in pre-K they have limited knowledge about letters and maybe even shapes. Our district does the spot screeners (thank goodness). We found a lot of astigmatism and a little myopia.

Tell the "other specialties" that your state requires screening in certain grades (almost all states require it in K). I'm not sure there's any advantage to screening before K.

[SaltineQueen]

Don't they get a physical before K?

[SaltineQueen]

Our SLP does screen K for hearing, but I do vision in 1 & 3.

I just reread your point #3... I would not do it if I would have to do it all over again. It's a waste of your time.

[AdobeRN]

sounds like alot of repetitive work & a waste of time. Just a question...why do you do a mass screening on new kinder if they are required to have an opthalmological exam before starting? I would think a physicians screening would trump your screening?

I get around to screening kinder around Oct/Nov - I save them for last, hopefully by then they can recognize letters well. I do tell teachers that if they have concerns regarding hearing/vision of a student before then or if they need to take to SST before then to let me know and I will screen that particular kid right away.